A New Home
by ilovepuppies125
Summary: Pepper adopts a twelve year old girl to improve Tony's image in front of the press but Tony has never really been the fatherly type. What happens when this girl from an abused past and billionaire meet. How will either one be able to keep their secrets from the other? What will Tony do when he finds himself feeling like a father to this girl?
1. Chapter 1

A New Home

Chapter 1:

Dani POV-

I had been at a group home for all of four months now. I suppose it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened at least now I had food, water, and shelter but I wouldn't call Mrs. First's Home for Girls an "ideal" living situation. On the outside it was beautiful, a large brick building with beautiful landscaping. The foyer and interrogation rooms were also decorated to please anyone who would want to come an adopt us, it was our sleeping quarters that looked like something you would find in a homeless shelter.

There weren't many beds so several girls had to share and there were even fewer blankets, so it was often cold. Cockroaches scurried across the floor, hiding in the corners with the cobwebs. Thankfully, almost everyone was nice, even Mrs. First, who was constantly apologizing for our room saying that she intends to clean it up whenever she can get more income into the home.

Unfortunately, every time I seemed to make a friend, she would be called down to the interrogation room and adopted. So far, nobody seemed to want to adopt me but Arista, the first girl I met here (who was adopted a short period of time later) said that I should never loose hope, that the right family will come around sometime.

'_Maybe today is that day,_' I thought hopefully as a group of girls, myself included, were called down to the main hallway. We lined up at the bottom of the stairs where Mrs. First and another woman with long red hair and a kind smile looked us over.

"Will I be able to meet them all separately?" the woman asked.

"Of course," Mrs. First said, leading the woman to the interrogation room and motioning for us to follow her. The woman went inside and the first girl, Amelia, at the front of the line, followed her in, taking the empty seat across from the woman. I looked at my place in line, second to last, which mean, that if this woman was planning on adopting one of us today, she might choose someone before I had a chance to go. My heart sank just a little.

'_She might be waiting until another time though, so if that's the case, she'll have more time to think about who she likes best,' _I thought to myself, once again raising my hopes just a little. Amelia came out and stood against the empty wall and the next girl, Rachel, went in. There was only one more girls in the line in beside me. I prayed silently to God that I would get my chance, looking at the Mrs. First's large painted cross on the wall as I did. When I got here, she had been the one to tell me the story about Jesus. I had been able to relate to it, He had been abused, worse than me, but still chose to do the right thing and die for everyone else, even for a 'mistake' like me.

Rachel came out and stood beside Amelia as the third girl, Darcy, went in. I tapped my fingers against my thigh. Darcy was a few years younger than me and very sweet, if anyone had a chance of getting adopted, it was her. It seemed like I stood there forever before the door finally opened a crack and Darcy came out and stood beside the others. I glanced at Mrs. First who came me an encouraging smile. I put my hand on the cool door handle and pushed the door open, taking the open seat on the other side of the desk. The woman in the room looked at me and smiled, in the light I could see that her eyes were a dark blue-green color and her red hair had hints of blonde through it. I smiled aback at her.

"I'm Ms. Potts, but you can call me Pepper," she told me. I smiled at her.

"I'm Danielle, but most people call me Dani, Dani with an I," I told her, she smiled again, taking note of this on a little notebook she had sitting in her lap.

"How old are you?" she asked me.

"Twelve," I told her, she nodded and continued to make notes on the notebook, I leaned to the side a little to see what she was writing, but hoping she wouldn't see me snooping, but unfortunately, she did. A twinkle of humor shone in her eyes as I quickly leaned back in my seat.

"What about your parents?" she asked.

"If I had them I wouldn't be here," I shrugged, she chuckled lightly, making another note.

"Yes, but do you know what happened to them, do you know why you ended up here?" she asked. When I didn't reply she added, "What about your mother?" she asked.

"I never knew her," I lied, because technically I'm a clone and I don't have a mother.

"Father?" she asked.

I clenched my teeth, remembering the man I had once called a father who had used me to get Danny, so that he could make a half ghost _son _because I wasn't good enough for him and then a few months later when he had kidnapped me and tried to melt me down into ectoplasmic goop. I shuddered involuntarily.

"I don't want to talk about it," I muttered, my teeth still clenched, her eyebrows furrowed and she scribbled more notes onto the notepad.

"What are you interested in?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Food, rock music, action movies, cars, and anything relating to space or NASA," I replied, this seemed to surprise her but a little smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she scribbled on the paper.

"What are some things that you're afraid of?" she asked.

"Um…" I thought for a minute, "Needles, spiders and failure." She seemed to appreciate my honesty and continued scribbling.

"Well," she grinned at me, "I think that's all of the questions I need to ask you." I nodded and headed towards the door, still thinking about everything I said in the interview.

'_Maybe I shouldn't have been so sarcastic. Maybe I should have told her about my dad…_' I thought to myself, so absorbed in my own thoughts that I hadn't realized that Pepper had gotten up behind me and had followed me out of the door.

"Mrs. First," she said, "I don't think anymore interviews will be necessary." For a second I thought that maybe my interview had been so horrible that I had messed it up for everyone else but then she said, "I have found the girl I want." I looked around at the other girls.

"That's wonderful!" Mrs. First exclaimed, "Who?"

Pepper smiled down at us, "Dani," she said, "Dani with an I."

For a second I was dumbstruck but then my brain started working again and I realized that THAT WAS ME! I AM GETTTING ADOPTED! I beamed and ran up and hugged Pepper who awkwardly returned the hug.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. First clasped her hands together, "I will draw up the paperwork."

A few minutes later we were seated in Mrs. First's office.

"Are you sure you don't want to think about this a little more, I mean taking on a child is a large responsibility," Mrs. First asked, I know it's her job to ask this question but I was really hoping that the answer was no.

Pepper shook her head smiling, "I've been thinking about this for a while and I think it will be good for me and especially Tony."

"Might I ask who this Tony is?" Mrs. First asked.

"Tony Stark, he's my boss," she replied, with a little blush that said he was definitely a little more than her boss. Mrs. First was so shocked that she nearly dropped the stack of papers in her hands.

"Tony Stark, as in _the _Tony Stark?" she asked, and Pepper nodded, "Mrs. Potts, are you completely sure this is a good idea?"

"Absolutely, Tony needs to learn to take care of others and stop thinking about himself all the time. I can assure you that Dani will always be well cared for while living with us," she replied.

"Well I hope you've at least told Mr. Stark about this," Mrs. First exclaimed. Pepper looked down guiltily, that would be a no.

"It's better this way anyway," Pepper said. Mrs. First let out a deep sigh but continued to organize the paperwork.

"I just have one question," I asked, and pepper turned to look at me, "Why did you pick me?"

"I picked you Danielle, because you were the most fun and the most like Tony, if anyone will be able to break his hard exterior, it would be you," she smiled. I didn't quite know what to think of this so I sat back for the remainder of the signing process.

Not even an hour later, everything was signed and I was officially adopted. I climbed in the back of a Volkswagen bug car as Pepper climbed in the front seat.

**Hello, I'm sorry if you were offended by my touch of religion there in the middle but I'm not going to change it so suck it up. Anyway, I do not own Iron Man or it's characters or Danny Phantom and it's characters. I hope you enjoyed it, please review if you did.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Pepper POV-

Alright, I will admit, bringing a twelve year old girl into our home may not have been the most thought out plan. Not to mention, Tony will undoubtedly freak out when we walk in the front door. I had actually planned to talk to Tony about this, I had planned to evaluate the girls today and go home and talk about it with him tonight but when I met Danielle, I didn't want to risk that she might not be there the next time I came back, so, yes, I acted impulsively (so unlike me) and decided to adopt her (in Tony's name) right then and there.

I'll tell Tony that this will help his image in front of the press, which it will, and he will believe that but the real reason I insisted on adopting a girl was exactly what I told Danielle, he needs to care about someone other than himself. And adopting this girl will give him just that. I knew it couldn't be a boy, he wouldn't get paternal or protective over a boy, no, it had to be a girl, it had to be Danielle.

All the other girls were so sweet but I knew they wouldn't work, Tony doesn't play well with others and someone too sweet would be like two repelling magnets. Danielle was different, she had a sharp wit, like Tony, liked a lot of the things he liked, has a problem with her real father, like he does, and, most of all, she just seems like the kind of girl who could easily kick someone's butt or save someone's life, much like someone else I know who is always running off to be the hero.

Honestly, I didn't know how I knew this about her, just judging by her personality it seemed highly possible.

Now we climbed into my car, I made Dani sit in the back seat, much to her dismay. I stifled a smile at her pouting face in the back of my rear-view mirror. I drove us to the mall and tossed my car keys to the parking valet.

"Danielle," I told her, "I want you to pick out whatever you want, money is no object," I told her, holding up the Stark Industries credit card. Her eyes widened like a little kid on Christmas morning and she could barely contain her excitement as she towed me through the mall. The majority of what she picked out were jeans in every style and color, converse shoes, and hoodies and sweatshirts, and graphic t-shirts. I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud at the irony when she picked up an Iron Man t-shirt. Despite her tomboy tastes, I insisted that she pick out formal clothing too, after all she would be attending all of the Stark Industry benefits, expos, and banquets with Tony and I. I found her a simple black dress with spaghetti straps that reached a little above her knees and flared out a little at the bottom I also got her a different red dress, a blue dress and a pair or (low) silver heels.

We stopped in front of the Apple store and Danielle bought an iPhone and a laptop which would be synchronized with Jarvis when we arrived back at home. Then we went next door to the home accessory store and purchased her bedroom furnishings and decorations, which I would have sent to the mansion later on tonight. Danielle picked a black and red bedspread with gray curtains and dark black furnishings along with some kind of black, floating hammock chair with more red pillows. Afterwards, we ate together in the food court, and let me tell you, when that girl said she likes food, she wasn't kidding, I think she eats more than Tony.

Finally, our shopping expedition was nearly finished as we picked up all of her bags and headed towards the double doors. We were almost out when I heard Danielle say "Awwwee!" She had found the pet shelter window.

I shook my head as the energetic twelve year old ran inside making the bell on the pet shelter door ding loudly. She knelt in front of the glass fronted dog cages, her face lighting up as the excited puppies barked in delight. Dani looked at me with her own puppy dog eyes that only a little girl can pull off and I felt my resolve begin to crumble. She asked a woman dressed in khaki if she could hold one of the puppies that was already a foot tall and kept tripping over its oversized feet. Because this was a branch of the pet shelter, most of the dogs were mutts, the one Danielle was currently holding looked like a mix of some kind of Shepard, maybe some Border Collie and maybe some Labrador or Spaniel because it was solid black except for the white patch on it's chest, paws, and mussel and its ears flopped, one standing straight up and one about half up. It yipped happily and licked her face as she giggled in delight.

'_Great,' _I thought, rolling my eyes and shaking my head, '_Not only is she a dog person, she's a _big_ dog person.'_ I opened my mouth to protest but she handed the dog to me and as I looked into it's eyes which were a dark bluish color (hmm…maybe part Husky) and saw Danielle's blue eyes giving me the same pleading look, there was no way I could say no.

'_Wow, a girl and a dog in the same day, Tony is going to kill me.'_

"You know a dog is a big responsibility right," I told her as we signed the paperwork. She nodded, "You're going to have to be in charge of training him, feeding him, bathing him, brushing him, making sure he has water, and taking him on walks." I told her, which, I knew wasn't technically true, in the Stark Mansion, you could find just about anybody to do just about anything, but instead of backing down at the responsibility like I had expected she nodded enthusiastically. We bought the dog and all of the dog accessories to go with him, black and red so that they could match her bedroom where she would undoubtedly keeping the dog. She bought him a red color with his name inscribed on the bong shaped tag.

For some reason she had decided to name her dog 'Ghost.' I clipped the leash onto his collar and we led him out of the mall to the car we had driven here in which suddenly seemed way too small. Dani clutched a very squirmy ghost in her arms while we piled the rest of the shopping bags in the trunk and the empty seats around us, so high, that I almost could not see to drive. We pulled up to Tony's home.

"Okay," I told her, twisting in my seat to look at her, "I'm going to break it to him slowly. He doesn't know about you yet so don't be surprised if he freaks out, especially when he sees the dog." She nodded and I continued, "Tony is a really nice guy once you get to know him but sometimes it takes a while for people to warm up to him and even longer sometimes for him to get used to new people." Danielle nodded again. Finally we got out of the car, I had someone take her things to an empty room and start putting them in the closet and we set out on a search to find Tony.

Thankfully, Tony had left earlier and would not be home until later tonight after the furniture had been delivered and Danielle would already be asleep.

'_So_,' I decided, '_He'll find out tomorrow.'_


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I would like to point out that I do not usually update like this but I have kind of been inspired, plus I want to get as much up as I can before school starts and I practically drop off of the map (except on weekend and maybe the first couple of days when I don't have homework). Anyway third chapter in one day, that is some kind of record for me I think. Anyway, still do not own Iron Man or Danny Phantom, I hope you enjoy this chapter too.**

Chapter 3:

Dani POV-

I would just like to say, my room is HUGE! After the furniture arrived shortly after we got home, the delivery guys set it up in my room. Against one wall is my bed, which is a king size bed, I might add, and I still have room for my desk, dresser, nightstands, bookshelves (which we stocked with the entire preteen-teen section of the Barnes and Noble in the mall), my cool hammock thingy, _and _a leather couch with even still enough room for Ghost's cute oversized doggie chair (which is essentially the size of a human chair just closer to the ground). The entire back wall is windows with two French door and a staircase that leads down to the beach (that's how I will be letting Ghost out to go to the bathroom). The closet is amazing too, it moves. After all of my stuff was placed into it I pressed the button on the wall and the closet, well, moved. I quickly found out too, that I could have Jarvis (Tony's artificial intelligence) pick out what I'm going to wear the next day. Jarvis also created me a playlist on my new iPhone and Laptop and downloaded me the coolest apps.

And I haven't even told you about my bathroom yet. It's attached to my room, with a large rainwater shower and a bathtub half the size of a standard size sports pool with benches and jets and everything so you feel like you're in a spa. There are also tons of cabinets and counter space for towels makeup and other accessories and styling products.

I flopped back on my bed, which was some kind of ultra plush sleep number.

"Miss," Jarvis asked, coming over through the ceiling, "Would you like to watch some TV."

"TV?" I asked because I didn't even know I had one but then a 56'' flat screen came out of the wall. I leaned back on the bed, Ghost jumped up too to snuggle with me and I scratched him behind his fluffy ears. This was definitely the life, I just hoped that Tony, whoever he was, would like me and actually let me stay here when he gets home. Pepper told me not to worry about it for tonight considering Tony wouldn't be home until after I went to bed. She had assured me that she would be here bright and early tomorrow to explain to Tony how he suddenly became the adoptive guardian of a twelve-year-old girl and a dog. I let Ghost outside one last time before slipping into my pajamas and climbing into my new bed. Jarvis turned off the TV and the lights, playing a soft classical song as my eyes closed and I drifted into an easy sleep, with Ghost right by my side.

… … … … … …

The Next Morning…

Tony POV-

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 11:30 in the morning and was surprised to see Pepper seated in a barstool at the counter.

"Good morning," she said in a cheery voice, way too cheery for when I have just woken up.

'_Maybe a little too cheery,_' I thought as her smile didn't falter when I didn't reply and she quickly poured me a glass of coffee.

"Thanks," I said slowly, taking the mug from her, "What's going on Pepper?"

"Um…" she muttered, Pepper hardly ever mutters, now I was concerned, "Well…yesterday, I kind of—"

But she didn't get to finish because a small voice behind me muttered "Good Morning" I whipped around to see a girl who couldn't be more than twelve in rumpled pajamas and bedhead standing at the entrance to the hallway to the guest rooms.

I whipped back around to Pepper. "Who is this?" I asked trying to keep some of the edge out of my voice.

"Surprise," she said with a sheepish smile, "This is Danielle," she walked over and put her hands on the girl's shoulder's leading her towards me, "You are now her legal guardian." I blinked than turned to Pepper.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry but in case you haven't noticed, Pepper, I'm not really the fatherly type," I told her, glancing at the girl again. Pepper rolled her eyes, removed her hands from the girl's shoulders and grasped my elbow.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked, not giving me much of a choice as she towed me to the kitchen where we still had a clear view of Danielle but she could not hear us, "Okay Tony, if you won't do this for her, think of the press, you desperately _need _to make yourself look better, and she could be your answer to that. And plus, you two have a lot in common, you might find that you actually like her if you get to know her," she explained in what was obviously a well-thought-out and probably rehearsed-in-front-of-the-bathroom-mirror speech. I sighed.

"I don't know Pepper," I shook my head and decided to lighten the mood a little, "Are there any more surprises I should know about?" I asked with a smirk. She opened her mouth to speak but suddenly there was a loud yip from down the hall and a little black and white puppy sprang into the living room.

I blinked at her, "Are you frickin' kidding me?" I exclaimed. I shook my head and stalked over to where the girl had picked up the dog.

"Okay listen, Danielle—" I started

"It's Dani." She corrected me.

"Fine Dani, whatever. You can stay, but there is no way you are keeping the dog," I told her.

Dani frowned, hugging the dog tighter to her chest and then looked up at me with the, I swear, biggest, saddest, deepest blue eyes you have ever seen. I looked away to the dog which was giving me the _exact _same look. Crap.

"I don't want to see dog piss on the floor," I simply said. Dani squealed in delight, setting the dog on the floor and giving me a hug, taking me by surprise.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, whatever," I replied, wriggling out of her grasp. I turned to Pepper giving her a 'You-owe-me-big-time' look, which she returned with an eye roll, "I need a drink." I announced, walking back into the kitchen and pouring myself a drink, which Pepper then proceeded to remove from my hand.

"No. You have a meeting this morning, remember?" she smirked. I glared at her. After a few seconds of a stare-down, I huffed in defeat and went to my room to change.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Later that same day…

Dani POV-

Ghost yipped happily in his sleep from his doggie chair, his paws twitching as he dream, I smiled to myself. I was currently finishing up the homework that I hadn't done Friday night seeing as today was Sunday and I would have to turn it in tomorrow.

"I like what you've done with the place," I heard a voice, I looked up to see Tony casually leaning in the doorframe.

"Thanks," I replied, spinning my black leather desk chair around to face him.

"Listen…" he said, walking in and talking a seat in my hammock chair, "I think you and I kind of got off to the wrong foot this morning, and, because Pepper won't get off my case, I decided to come in here and see if as she puts it 'get to know you better,'" he said.

"Okay," I crossed my legs underneath me, "What do you want to know?"

Tony, who had been momentarily distracted by the Rubik's cube on a table looked up at me.

"Um…" he thought, "How old are you?"

"Twelve," I replied, feeling déjà vu considering that Pepper had asked me the exact same question yesterday.

"So you're a millennium baby. When is your birthday?" he asked. I had been called a millennium baby before, which I later found out that meant that you were born in the year 2000, but in actuality, I was not even alive until a few years ago. Also, I didn't technically have a 'birthday' because I'm a clone and I wasn't technically 'born' so I gave him the date I was created.

"April 7th," I told him. He nodded.

"So a little over a month after mine," he mused, "What about your parents?" he asked.

"Don't have any," I retorted, maybe a little sharper than I had intended. Tony raised an eyebrow in my direction and I sighed, "Alright, fine. I guess I have parents okay? But they might as well not exist."

"Care to elaborate?" he asked, a light smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

"Not really," I muttered quietly, Tony chuckled, so I sighed again and told him the incredibly edited story. "I never knew my mother, so I grew up with my dad."

"Soo…?" he prodded.

"Let's just say my father was not a nice man, well, to me at least. To everyone else he is this great guy but nobody knows him like I did," I explained.

"What did he do?" Tony asked.

'_Seriously?' _I wondered, _'does he not get that I really don't want to talk about my entire backstory.' _Instead of saying this, I continued.

"He thought I was a mistake, an imperfection, because he really wanted a son. Of course I didn't know this for a long time and I thought that he loved me. But he would always send me to do his dirty work. When I overheard him talking about me, I refused to continue doing his dirty work, but then he just started abusing me," I told him, cringing as the painful memories flooded back to me.

"Oh," was all he was able to say.

"Now what about you? Do I get to play twenty questions now?" I asked, smirking at him, lightening the mood.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, you know my backstory, now I want to know yours," I told him.

"Um…Okay," he started, "Born in 1972, I had a relatively good childhood, my relationship with my dad was always strained, although whatever problems I had with my father are nothing compared to yours. Anyway, parents sent me to boarding school, I entered college at the age of fifteen, graduated with two Master's degrees by the time I was nineteen. When I was twenty-one both of my parents were killed in a car crash and I inherited Stark Industries, and well, that's pretty much where I still am now…" he told me. I could tell by the look on his face that he was leaving something out but I didn't ask.

"Well, in that case Mr. Genius," I smirked, "Could you help me with my calculus homework?" I asked.

"Calculus? Shouldn't you be learning like pre-algebra or something?" he asked in surprise.

"You're not the only smart person," I replied, pretending to be offended. He chuckled at this and leaned over to help me. At this point, Ghost chose to wake up. He excitedly barked, jumping up on Tony's pant leg. Tony glared at the puppy, stepping aside so that Ghost could jump up into the seat with me.

"You know," Tony said, scratching Ghost under the chin, "I never did ask you what his name is."

"Ghost," I replied.

"Ghost?" he wondered, "What kind of a name is that?"

"It's a long story," I said. Tony arched an eyebrow but I wasn't about to tell him my secret. He sighed when he realized I would not disclose any information and went back to checking over my math homework.

After we had finished, I followed Tony out into the living room. We were currently involved in a discussion about classic cars (and I was begging for Tony to show me his collection) when he suggested that we invite Pepper over and order Chinese. I immediately agreed, I love Chinese food.

An hour later, we were all seated in the kitchen, and I was happily slurping up chow mein noodles, while dumping rice in my mouth. Tony was stunned at the amount of food I was able to eat, in fact, at one point we were even having an eating contest, which, I must proudly say, I won.

"Well, I see you two are getting along well," she said with a smirk.

I grinned, taking a sip from my Coca Cola.

'_For the first time in my life,' _I thought happily, '_Life is good.'_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Dani POV-

The next morning, Jarvis woke me up with the news, weather details and my favorite song, not a bad way to wake up if you ask me. After that, he even had my outfit picked out for me: a pair of acid washed skinny jeans, a black sequined V-neck t-shirt, and a red leather jacket to go with a red pair of Converse tennis shoes. I looked at myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom. This was so much better than anything I had ever worn while I was living in the orphanage.

'_Clarissa is going to be stunned_,' I thought to myself. Clarissa or Issa, as we sometimes call her, is my best friend. I met her through one of the older girls at the orphanage who was adopted a few years ago: Clarissa is her adoptive younger sister. As it turned out, Issa and I had a lot in common the first time we met, and we have been friends ever since.

Her and I are both well…individuals if you put it loosely, and we are both tomboys who love cars and rock music, which, unfortunately, makes us the targets of the popular girls way more often than not, but then again, it's not like either of us care what other people think about us.

"How do I look, Jarvis?" I asked.

"Stunning, miss Dani," he replied and I laughed picking up my new black backpack and going leaving my room, with Ghost right at my heels. I set my backpack on the couch and went into the kitchen where I saw a muffin had already been set out, along with a glass of juice. I sat at the barstool, unfortunately, alone.

Pepper told me that Tony would, undoubtedly be sleeping in most of the day, so I probably would not see him until I arrived home from school. That was okay with me, it gave me some time to explore this still, mostly-untouched house. Without turning on the lights, I quietly walked around aimlessly, poking my head into various hallways until I came to one. I found a staircase that looked like something that was frequently used by Tony. However, when I started in that direction, Jarvis stopped me.

"I'm sorry, miss Dani, but you are not authorized to access this area," he told me.

"Aw, come on Jarvis," I complained to the artificial intelligence system.

"I'm very sorry miss," he told me. I crossed my arms, pouting for a second as I walked back into the living room.

'_What does mister billionaire have to hide?' _I wondered but it didn't take me very long to remember that, I have ghost powers. A devilish smile crossed my face. I was seconds away from going to the bathroom (considering Tony probably has the place wired with video cameras) and going ghost, just to see what is down there, when ghost barked and Pepper opened the front door.

"Oh, hey Dani, I'm glad you're ready. Come on, let's go, we don't want you to be late for school," she told me, motioning for me to join her at the front door. I rolled my eyes, picking up my backpack and slinging it over my shoulder I headed to the door. Pepper looked down at ghost who was still eagerly pawing at her. Giving the pooch a smile, she picked him up, "Come on Ghost, you can come to work with me," she told him, making my dog yip with glee. I laughed and rubbed his fuzzy ears as her squirmed in her grasp, before both of us headed out the door.

When we arrived at school, I was early, which was odd, for me considering that most days I rode the bus, which meant that most days, I was late.

I went to my first period class when suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"That can't be Dani," I smiled, knowing the voice and turned around to see my best friend rush up to me.

"The one and only," I grinned.

"Girl, what happened to you? You actually look good," she exclaimed. I feigned being offended.

"Are you saying that I don't always look good?" I asked, still pretending to be outraged.

"No, I'm saying that you usually look like something the cat threw up," she sneered, causing me to playfully smack her with the back of my hand, "Seriously though, what happened to you?"

"I got adopted," I said with a smile. She blinked and then embraced my tightly.

"Oh my gosh, really! That's so great!" she beamed at me.

"Yeah, it is!" I grinned back, "But the best part is, guess who I got adopted by."

She arched an eyebrow, "Who?" she asked, confused.

"Tony Stark," I said with complete seriousness, knowing that she would think that I am joking.

"You're joking?" she stared at me, trying to gauge whether I was or not. At this point I couldn't help it I shook my head with a smile lighting up my face.

"And guess what else!" I exclaimed.

"What?" she asked.

"I got a puppy!" I told her.

"No way, what's it's name?," she asked me.

"Ghost," I smirked and Issa immediately burst out laughing. I had told Issa my secret a while ago when we officially became best friends, so she totally understood and enjoyed the humor in my dog's name.

"Well, I'm coming over to see him," she announced.

"No problem, I'll let Pepper know that I'm bringing a friend home," I told her, pulling out my new iPhone.

"Wait a minute!" she pulled my phone out of my hand, like I expected she would, "You have an iPhone too!"

"Well, when you're adopted by Tony Stark…" I shrugged, or course, this was the time when Scarlett, the school's number one mean girl suddenly appeared behind us.

"Tony Stark," she sneered, "Wow Danielle, I knew you were poor, but I had no idea you were also a liar."

"She's not lying," Clarissa stood up for me, "See, Tony even got her an iPhone."

"Oh, so you have an iPhone, I guess that makes you a thief too," she sneered again. I gritted my teeth, but said nothing, only meeting her face smile with my solid glare.

"You know Scarlett, you are such a bitch," Clarissa said, moving towards her, probably to beat her up. The only problem was, I knew she would, so I had to hold her back, no matter how much I would like to see my best friend give that brat a new nose job.

"Come on Issa, she's not worth it," I shook my head, holding Issa's shoulders and pulling her away.

When we were out of earshot, Clarissa turned to me.

"You know you have the power to shut her up for life, right?" she asked.

I sighed, "Of course I do, I just can't mostly because that would expose, my secret and secondly because it's not right."

"But she deserves to be knocked down a couple pegs," she whined.

"Um…Issa, I think I know that better than anyone, but I still can't do it," I reminded her.

"Why not?" she whined again.

"Do you think Danny ever reacts when people are bullying him, no. He gets pushed around and shoved into lockers and lets it happen everyday," I told her.

"But Danielle, you're not your cousin, you can make your own decisions," she told me.

"I know, but Danny always does the right thing, so at least for now, I'm going to follow his example," I told her, effectively ending the conversation. Issa sighed, we'd had this discussion before and she knew I wasn't going to shift my position, but I will give her the credit for continuing to try.

Finally, we arrive at first period, sitting down in our seats exactly when the bell rang. The teacher started her lesson and I realized with a sigh, today was going to be a long Monday.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Tony POV-

In actuality, I wasn't asleep when Danielle lefty for school in the morning, I was down in the lab, the same place I had been since she went to sleep the night before. Call me paranoid, but it seemed like there was something that she wasn't telling me about herself, so I decided to investigate.

I had brought down her adoption papers that read her official name as Danielle Fenton, however, when I did a search on her, nothing came up. And that, is most definitely saying something considering I have one of the largest hacking systems in the country.

So, I tried again, this time including hair and eye color, still nothing, for her, at least. No birth records, no social security number, no parent records, no domestic violence case reports, nothing.

Instead, the search bar came up and asked: _Did you mean Daniel Fenton? _It asked me. Feeling like it wouldn't hurt, I clicked on the boy. Suddenly my page was bombarded with birth records, school report cards, parent information, and pictures of him, even one in Genius magazine, which I found weird considering that it's a woman's magazine (or I would be front page all the time).

The weirdest thing however, was that, this boy, looked nearly identical to Danielle with the exception of being two years older and well, obviously male. They had the same, ice blue eyes that contrasted with their black hair. I started reading one of the articles.

'_Daniel James Fenton of Amity Park Illinois, discovered what no one else did. That Sampson, a purple backed gorilla in captivity in the Amity Zoo, was actually a Delilah, thus allowing scientists to be able to further the species…' _I didn't really care too much about the purple backed gorilla but the name of his city, for some reason, did stand out to me.

"Jarvis," I told my artificial intelligence system, "Do a search on Amity Park Illinois."

"Yes sir," he replied, making the images of Daniel Fenton disappear and replacing them with images of Amity Park.

What I found was that there were very few pictures of the town itself, other than the town sign that read "Amity Park, a nice place to live." Most of the articles related to a famed Danny Phantom. I studied the mostly grainy images of what appeared to be a teenager with white hair in a spandex uniform.

I scoffed and continued reading through the articles. One article told about how Amity Park had reached number one on the most haunted places in the world, list. And another talked about the new mayor of the city.

'_Billionaire, Vlad Masters was recently appointed mayor of Amity Park…' _I read. Then I realized why Amity Park had sounded so familiar. Actually, I knew Vlad Masters.

Of course, I only knew him loosely, mostly considering that we lived on opposite ends of the country and I was much richer than him, but I still knew him. Each time I met him, I didn't like him. He always had this eerie smile on his face and was always talking about himself, the Packers, himself, some woman named Maddie, or himself. Of course, I talk about myself too, but, at least it's expected from me, and I way more money to back up my arrogance.

I studied the image of Vlad's creepy smile on the screen, quickly deciding to close the window and start tinkering with my Iron Man suit. At some point I must have fallen asleep because I woke up the next morning to a loud beep and saw myself splayed out in my chair. I sighed and searched for the cause of the beep, it was Danielle.

Upstairs she had tried to enter the hallway that leads to this lab, and was, denied access. I chuckled, seeing her pout from the camera I had posted in the living room. Then, for a brief second, her face lit up with a devious smile, I blinked, suddenly confused, and then the smile flashed away the second Pepper opened the door, leaving me wondering if I had imagined it. Pepper took Danielle, and thankfully the dog (I was glad I wouldn't have to deal with it today) and left as quickly as she had come.

I drummed my fingers on my desk, not sure what to do when I remembered that Danielle now had Jarvis installed on her phone, which meant that I could hear everything she was saying.

"Girl, what happened to you? You actually look good," I heard a voice I didn't recognize exclaim.

'_That must be one of her friends,' _I thought and continued listening.

"Are you saying that I don't always look good?" Danielle asked and I chuckled as pretended to be offended.

"No, I'm saying that you usually look like something the cat threw up," the other girl laughed and Danielle laughed too, "Seriously though, what happened to you?"

"I got adopted," Danielle said and I could practically see the smug smile on her face.

"Oh my gosh, really! That's so great!" the other girl cheered.

"Yeah, it is!" Dani replied, "But the best part is, guess who I got adopted by."

Not that I really cared if Dani did tell her best friend, but I wondered if she would as the other girl asked, "Who?"

"Tony Stark," she said and I shook my head, I should have expected that.

"You're joking?" the other girl asked, not that I can blame her, it did seem far-fetched, for me at least.

"And guess what else!" she exclaimed.

"What?" the other girl asked.

"I got a puppy!" Danielle told her.

'_Great,' _I thought sarcastically, with a smile, '_Now I'm the father figure, animal lover of the year, someone call in the media.'_

"No way, what's its name?" the other girl asked.

"Ghost," Dani replied, and then both girls burst out laughing, so obviously _she _knew the inside joke that Dani had refused to tell me.

"Well, I'm coming over to see him," the other girl announced.

"No problem, I'll let Pepper know that I'm bringing a friend home," Danielle told her, I scoffed a little, even though I really didn't care if she invited a friend over.

"Wait a minute!" the other girl shouted, "You have an iPhone too!" ooh, so she's admiring Dani's new technological upgrades, I smirked a little and turned on the camera to her phone so that I could now see both of the girls without them knowing that I was eavesdropping. I could see the other girl now, she had platinum blonde hair cut in a pixie style, Caribbean blue-green eyes, a black t-shirt and pink skinny jeans.

"Well, when you're adopted by Tony Stark…" Dani shrugged, causing me to grin.

"Tony Stark," I heard another voice, the camera whipped around and I saw a short girl with long brown hair tied up in a high pony tail and in a low-cut green t-shirt and mini skirt. "Wow Danielle, I knew you were poor, but I had no idea you were also a liar," the girl continued. I saw Danielle tense but she said nothing.

"She's not lying," the other girl interjected, "See, Tony even got her an iPhone." Okay, so _I _didn't technically buy her the iPhone, Pepper did, but she bought it with Stark Industry funds, so I guess I did play some part in the purchase of that phone.

"Oh, so you have an iPhone, I guess that makes you a thief too," the mean slutty girl sneered again.

"You know Scarlett, you are such a bitch," Dani's friend said, moving towards her, the look on her face said that she clearly wanted to mess that chick up, but for some reason, Danielle held her back, "Come on Issa, she's not worth it."

'_So her name is Issa?' _I wondered about her friend.

Slowly, Danielle and her friend started walking in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, her friend spoke up.

"You know you have the power to shut her up for life, right?" Issa asked.

Dani sighed at this, "Of course I do, I just can't mostly because that would expose, my secret and secondly because it's not right."

'_Wait a minute? What? What does she mean by 'have the power to shut her up for life' and what secret does she have?'_ I asked myself.

"But she deserves to be knocked down a couple pegs," her friend whined, and I couldn't help but agree with her.

"Um…Issa, I think I know that better than anyone, but I still can't do it," Dani said.

"Why not?" she whined again.

"Do you think Danny ever reacts when people are bullying him, no. He gets pushed around and shoved into lockers and lets it happen everyday," I told her.

Again I was confused, '_Who the hell is this 'Danny' guy?'_

"But Danielle, you're not your cousin, you can make your own decisions," she told me.

'_Oh, so Danny is her cousin, but wait, then why isn't she living with him?' _I wondered, not that it really bothered me that Danielle was living here anymore.

"I know, but Danny always does the right thing, so at least for now, I'm going to follow his example," Dani stated in a very 'this-is-the-end-of-this-discussion' tone.

Suddenly, the bell rang for them to start first period and I decided to cut out, severing my connection to Dani's phone.

I thought for a minute.

'_Maybe Dani can't do anything against that girl, for whatever reason, but I can at least prove that Dani wasn't lying,' _I grinned, a mischievous smile playing on my lips.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello peps, I'm so glad for those of you who review this story, I really appreciate it. It seems like the number one question is whether Danny will be involved in this story at all, and the most honest answer I can provide is, I don't know. I would love to able to include our favorite half-ghost hero, but I'm not sure yet if the plot will allow me to. Anyway, I don't own Danny Phantom or Iron Man (it is based on the movie version by the way, except people don't know he is Iron Man), and yeah, I hope you enjoy this next chapter **

Chapter 7:

Tony POV-

About 15 minutes before Danielle's school got released, I called Pepper.

"Hey Pepper," I said over the phone.

"Hey Tony, what's up?" she asked.

"Nothing, but just so you know, you don't have to pick Danielle up from school now. Don't bother calling to tell her in the middle of class, she won't be able to miss me right out front. She's bringing home a friend right?" I asked in one long string.

"Yes, but—" she tried to reply.

"Okay, Pepper, talk to you later, bye," I replied back, quickly ending the conversation.

On the wall in the lab where I keep all of my car keys meticulously line up on a corkboard, I pulled off the keys to the 1930 Ford Roadster, the one that is black with flames running down the sides. In fact, these flames were what originally gave me the idea of the color scheme for the Iron Man suit.

I hopped into the car, inserting the keys and hearing the V8 engine roar to life beneath me. I laughed, Dani, being the car fanatic she is (oddly enough), would absolutely love this car, in fact she had been begging me to see it all last night, of course, I couldn't show it to her because it was parked in the lab beneath the house. But now, however, this car was fair game. The wall of the lab opened up and I drove the car out onto the streets. Unlike some people, I actually enjoy driving my vintage cars instead of just letting them go to waste in the garage, mostly because I have the funds to maintain them.

I grinned, putting the top down and putting on my sunglasses. Several minutes later, I arrived at Danielle's school with time to spare, actually early for once.

Suddenly, I heard a loud chime resonate within the school. I got out of the car, to face the school leaning against the car. After a few seconds, kids finally started to flood out of the school, most of them doing a double take, gawking, or snapping pictures of my car and I. I grinned to myself, shaking my head, knowing that I would be on the front page of something tomorrow. Finally, Danielle and her friend Issa came out, they were easy to spot because of her friend's bright pink skinny jeans. Dani froze, then blinked at me, before a smile lit up her face. She whipped around to make sure her middle school tormentor was behind her, she was. The brunette dressed like a leprechaun's jaw dropped. From where I stood, I saw Dani smirk.

"Bye Scarlett," she smirked again with a small, smug wave in the other girl's direction.

Her friend Issa, on the other hand, was not so nice. "Bye Scarlett, yeah what to you think of that you airheaded bimbo." Dani rolled her eyes and finally got in the car.

"I like your choice of vehicles," she grinned stroking the vintage leather seats. "And I'm not sure how you knew, although I'm sure it has something to do with Jarvis and my phone, but thanks for that." She glanced back at Scarlett and Issa who were still engaged in a comical exchange, although Issa was clearly winning because Scarlett was still struggling to comprehend what I had just proved to be true.

"Anytime," I grinned back at her from the rear view mirror, wondering how she put together that I hacked her phone.

'_But she is a smart girl,' _I reminded myself. Her friend finally got in the car, after yet another string of profanities in Scarlett's direction.

"Tony, this is Clarissa, or Issa, but I'm sure you already knew that," she smirked, with a knowing, mischievous glint in her eye.

"Yeah, just a little," I smirked back, "Hi Issa." Clarissa looked confused by Dani and I but she quickly smiled again as she started to analyze the car.

"Ooh, this is a 1930 Ford Roadster, right?" she asked in delight.

"Yeah," I replied proudly, approving of Danielle's friend already.

A few minutes later, we pulled into the driveway in front of my mansion as I handed the keys to Happy so that he could drive my car back into the lab.

I led the girls in through the front door and was immediately bombarded with the happy scratching of paws at my legs. I looked down at the mutt and then up at Pepper who was leaning against the countertop with a perplexed and amused look on her face. I glared at her playfully and then the two girls followed in the house behind me. Clarissa squealed and dropped to her knees to embrace the squirming pup. Danielle laughed but also bent down to pet her dog.

"Hey Ghost," her friend spoke in a high pitched voice that clearly said 'I-am-a-dog-person' and was rewarded with a face-full of dog slobber. After a few seconds, they both stood up off of the floor.

"Umm…the media room, game room and snack room are down the hall, and the pool is on the roof," I informed them. The two girls smiled and raced down the hall towards Dani's bedroom with the yappy puppy nipping at their heels. I shook my head, smiling.

"Do your homework first," Pepper called after them in a maternal tone, not that they were even paying attention, they were giggling so hard.

Then I looked up at Pepper, motioning with my head for her to follow me to the lab. She did and we both descended the staircase so I could show her my findings, or rather the lack thereof, on Danielle.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Dani POV-

Issa and I went down to my bedroom. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Tony give Pepper a nod, and watch the two of them go towards that secret place I can't access. I pursed my lips in frustration as Issa continued to babble about this awesome house. Finally, we arrived in my room. Issa immediately threw down her backpack and pounced onto my bed, landing on her stomach.

"Wow! This bed is soft!" she exclaimed with her head still buried in the comforter, so it sounded more like "Mhmm, mhm mhm m mhmhmble." I laughed, setting my stuff down on the bed.

"And you haven't even seen everything," I smirked. Clarissa shot up, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Show me, show me, show me!" she pleaded like a five year old. I smirked again.

"Jarvis, the TV please," I requested.

"Of course miss," he replied and the TV came out of the wall. Issa grinned.

"Yeah, it's okay, but I did kind of expect that," she shrugged trying to play it off like she was unimpressed. I smirked again.

"Maybe," I shrugged, "But did you expect this." I clicked the remote that activated my closet. Immediately the clothes on my automated conveyor belt started to move. Issa's eyes widened and her jaw went slack as she moved like a zombie towards the closet.

I giggled at her reaction. Hard core rocker chick or not, Clarissa still likes her clothes.

"Or, what about the bathroom," I suggested, pushing open the bathroom doors. She quickly followed.

"Awesome!" she fist-pumped into the air, "You have a hot tub!"

"Yeah I do!" I agreed with pride as I closed the door behind us. "Listen, you stay here, I'm going to do some um…surveillance work," I told her changing into my ghost form.

She nodded, a grin playing on her lips, "Okay GG (ghost girl) you do what you got to do, if you need me, I'll be here, riding your closet."

With one final smirk, I phased through the floor.

Invisibly, and quietly, I floated down the hall. Finally I found the staircase. I decided that, instead of floating down the stairs, I would float through the wall directly next to the stair just in case Tony had some kind of ghost sensor. From somewhere within the pitch darkness of the inside of a wall, I heard muffled voices. Still staying within the wall, I managed to poke only my face into what looked like a high tech lab/ garage.

"I don't understand it Pepper, it's like she doesn't exist," Tony said. I froze, somehow knowing that it was me they were discussing, "Now, you know I have one of the largest hacking systems in the country, but Danielle shows up on nothing except for the adoption papers you gave me."

"Maybe she's in the witness protection program, you did say she said something about there having been domestic violence in her home life," Pepper suggested.

"Impossible, I have access to all those files too," Tony shook his head. "However," he continued, "I did find something about a Daniel Fenton, and is it just me or does this kid look a hell of a lot like Danielle?" he asked, mostly rhetorically, considering he already knew the answer.

"Wow, no kidding, he looks exactly like her, they could be brother and sister," she gaped.

'_Or clones,' _I added in my head.

"Yeah, I know. It says this kid is from a little town called Amity Park, and I was wondering why that name sounded so familiar and then I remembered," Tony typed furiously and pulled up a new set of pictures and I gasped, although it was only audible to me.

"Vlad Masters," Pepper confirmed my fears, "But what does he have to do with any of this?"

"I don't know," Tony shook his head, the frustration obviously eating at him.

"Why don't you call him, maybe you can find out a little bit more about Danielle?" Pepper suggested. I held my breath, hoping, no praying that he would say no.

"No, whatever Vlad has to do with this, something tells me it's not good. Besides, he's creepy and an asshole," Tony announced. I released the breath in relief, and unconsciously drifted into the lab a little bit farther.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded.

"Sir, I'm picking up an electromagnetic field radiating from somewhere in this room," Jarvis announced. I gulped and quickly phased out of the room, racing at full speed back to my own bathroom. I was still panting when I got there, whether from fear or adrenaline, or anger, I didn't know. I quickly shifted back to my human form.

Suddenly, I loud knock startled me.

"Dani, are you okay in there?" Issa asked from the other side of the door.

"Yeah," I replied, struggling to control the shake in my voice. I opened the bathroom door and pulled her in, quickly telling her everything that I had witnessed downstairs.

"Can you really blame him for wanting to investigate you? I mean he is a billionaire with some of the world's most powerful and secret technology, and well, he still doesn't know you very well," Clarissa rationalized with me after I had finally gotten my heart rate to slow down.

"No, I guess not," I sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bathtub. "But what he does end up getting Vlad involved? What do I do then?" I asked.

"He said he doesn't like Vlad, at least you have that going for you. If Vlad makes any move in your direction you have a billionaire weapons expert on your side," she told me. I laughed.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," I agreed.

"Then, no worries right? And you know, if you really need to, you could always tell one of them your secret, what's the worst thing that can happen?" she asked.

'_Actually,' _I thought to myself, '_I can think of a million bad things that could happen.'_ I decided not to say this. Instead, I put on a smile.

"I'll think about it," I told her, and she seemed to accept this answer, "Now come on, let's change, I want to go swimming!"

"Awesome!" she cheered and ran into my room, no doubt to brose my closet for the best bathing suit. I rolled my eyes and followed after her.

**Hey peeps, sorry it took so long, busy with school you know. And it's not like I have these chapters typed before hand, I know what happens when you know what happens. Anyway, next chapter should have Danny in it and maybe a little bit of everybody's favorite fruitloop. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review if you did!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

The next day…

Danny POV-

Today started out as a relatively normal day, I only had a few hours of school thanks to frequent ghost attacks, and then I had to wake up early for school. I was late to class, once again, because of ghost attacks. As a result, I didn't really get to have a conversation with either Tucker or Sam until we sat down together at lunch.

"Danny, I need to show you something that I found this morning," Tucker told me, reaching into his bag and pulling out a magazine. He laid the tabloids on the table and I glanced at the cover to see 'TONY STARK…' written in bold letters.

"Tuck, I'm too tired to care about what new tech Tony Stark released," I sighed.

"Wait, there's more to it than that," he told me, picking up the magazine and flipping through the pages. "Here," he stopped and pointed to the page, "Does _she _look familiar?" he asked. I glanced at the page and there was my younger female clone who disappeared after the last time we saw her.

"That's Danielle!" I exclaimed. Picking up the magazine and reading the article attached to her image.

'_Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries has recently acquired a new responsibility: a daughter. Sources say that young Danielle Fenton, an orphan, was adopted by Stark's assistant Pepper Pots in Tony's name…' _I blinked, a little surprised.

"Why would she take my last name?" was the only logical question that came to my mind.

"Well, she is your clone, also, it's better than Danielle Masters," Tucker shrugged.

"Speaking of, Danny you're missing the big picture. What if Vlad sees this, Danielle could be in big danger!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know that," I told her, "But what am I supposed to do, steal the specter speeder and then take a trip to Las Angeles, California? Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd be in?" I asked.

"Well, it's not like we haven't done it before…" Tucker muttered.

"But Danny," Sam argued, "You have to make sure she's safe."

"I know…" I said, thinking of a way to be sure that I could warn her and keep her safe from her fruitloop father. Suddenly, I had an idea.

"Tucker, how hard would it be for you to hack Stark Industries so that I could get a message to Danielle?" I asked him.

"I don't know, with a security system like that, it could take a couple of hours," he shrugged in response.

"Great," I replied, "Then we'll do it after school."

…

After school…

"Okay, I already told my parents that I'm staying over here, so we should be good to go," I told Tucker and Sam as we sat in Tucker's bedroom around his computer.

"Alright, time to put my hacking skills to the test," Tucker grinned, before frantically typing on his keyboard.

Two and a half hours later, I was in and out of sleep in the chair beside the desk and Sam had already gone home for the night.

"Alright Danny!" Tucker announced, "I'm in." I shot up and realized that he was right, he had successfully hacked Stark Industries and had opened a page directed to Danielle.

"You're going to have to be quick, I have to remove the firewalls as quickly as they come up," he told me. I nodded and started typing in my message to Danielle as Tucker continued to disable firewalls.

'Danielle, Tucker hacked in so that I could tell you that since you're in magazines now, Vlad might try to come for you. Be on your guard, and try not to be alone at any time. We're going to try to get some supplies to you. –Danny' I pressed send just as Tucker disabled the last firewall.

"Okay now I just have to cover my tracks and…done," he said.

"Did you get an address?" I asked.

"I've got you covered man," Tucker replied, handing me a slip of paper with a California address written on it.

Dani POV-

The night of the following day, it was 8:30, Tony and Pepper were at a press conference and I was just hanging out in my room, listening to music. Suddenly, the music stopped. An error message flashed on the screen next to my closet that was used to control Jarvis.

"Jarvis," I called to the empty house. No reply. Confused as well as intrigued, I stood up and walked over to the screen. Suddenly a message came up.

'Danielle, Tucker hacked in so that I could tell you that since you're in magazines now, Vlad might try to come for you. Be on your guard, and try not to be alone at any time. We're going to try to get some supplies to you. –Danny'

A smiled recognizing that I had just received a message from Danny, but I also curse myself because, I suddenly realized that my new status as adopted daughter of a billionaire, might be dangerous. Suddenly, the empty house felt much more sinister, like my father might be waiting in any one of the shadows to take me back to his lab and melt me down into ectoplasm. I looked at Ghost, his floppy ears standing up in interest as he studied me.

I had once heard that dogs had a higher sensitivity to ghosts than most humans do, I just hoped that if Vlad does try to kidnap me, that Ghost would bark and wake me up so that I at least have a chance of fighting back.

Danny's message fizzled out on the screen and my music turned on.

"Jarvis?" I asked again.

"Yes miss Dani?" he replied.

"What was that?" I asked.

"What? Miss Dani," he asked sounding as confused as an artificial intelligence system can sound.

"Um…nothing, I just thought I heard thunder," I replied.

"There is a forty percent chance of storms miss Dani," Jarvis told me.

"Okay, thanks Jarvis," I said, walking towards the windows. The sky was dark and so was the rolling sea below. It was too dark to see anything other than the lighter sand on the shore. I took a deep breath and went to my bed.

Vlad POV-

"Ah, so daddy's little girl has gone and found herself a new father," I said to my empty house as I unfolded the magazine in front of myself, "A father, I might add, who made an enemy of me the day he refused my business offer the last time I was in California. Well, now, maybe I should just arrange a little business meeting with mister stark then."

"Come along, Maddie," I told my cat as the two of us wandered over to my computer. I entered the email address of Tony Stark's assistant in and sent her an email.

"It's funny, Pepper Potts, is almost as lovely as my Maddie," I mused, receiving an angry meow from my fluffy white cat.

"Not you my dear," I soothed the feline, giving her a scratch behind the ears.

'Dear Ms. Potts,

I feel like Tony and I did not really get to bargain as much the last time as I had hoped. I will be in California the last week of the month and I would love for you to set up a time for us to meet.

-Vlad Masters'

I clicked send on the email. The end of the month was nearly three weeks away, giving me plenty of time to perfect my plan. I laughed maniacally as the plan already began to take shape in my mind.

**Bum Bum Buuummmm.**

**How do you think Tony will react to suddenly receiving an email from Vlad? I hope you liked it, please review if you did. I don't own Danny Phantom or Iron Man.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Tony POV-

It was about 10:30 by the time the seemingly endless press conference ended. The house was dark so I assumed that Danielle had already gone to sleep. I said goodbye to Pepper and decided to go to the lab.

When I got down to the lab, I immediately knew that something was wrong. All of the screens were black, like they had been turned off, even though I specifically remember leaving them on when I left for the press conference with Pepper. This made the already dark lab, feel even darker without the glow of the screens. I flipped on the lights wincing at the fluorescent lighting and went over to the computer.

"Jarvis," I asked, "Why is everything turned off."

"I don't know sir," he replied. I sat down at the computer and turned it on. It didn't take me long to figure out the problem. I had been hacked.

Needless to say, I was furious. _Nobody _hacks me! I'm Tony freaking Stark for crying out loud! However, no matter how furious I was, I was also somewhat impressed. Someone had actually managed to do the impossible.

"What did they hack into, Jarvis?" I asked.

"I do not know sir, I have no record of said 'hacker,'" he replied. This perplexed me. Jarvis had a record of everything and the fact that someone had managed to remove this from the record, made me somewhat more impressed. And the more impressed I became, also the more furious I became.

"Alright then," I decided, "I guess I'm going to catch this guy the old fashioned way." I immediately started frantically typing.

"With all do respect sir, when things were 'old fashioned' I must say there were far fewer hackers and much fewer ways of actually catching them," Jarvis said, and I rolled my eyes.

"It's an expression Jarvis," I informed my artificial intelligence system.

"Yes sir," Jarvis stated simply. A few seconds later, I found the source computer responsible for the hacking.

"It says that the computer responsible belongs to a Tucker Foley," I said out loud, "Jarvis do a search on Tucker Foley."

"Yes sir," Jarvis obeyed and loaded images of the kid on my screen.

"Wait a second…he's from Amity Park too? And he's a freaking kid? A fourteen year old hacked _my _system?" I exclaimed, outraged.

"It would appear so sir, should I offer him a job?" Jarvis suggested.

Ignoring that, I zoomed in on one a picture of the kid with his friends.

"Hold on…that's the kid that looks like Danielle," I realized when I saw a particular black-haired blue-eyed boy standing next to Tucker, "This just keeps getting more suspicious, and it's all somehow tied to Danielle, I just can't figure out why…"

…

The next morning, I was awoken by Pepper, once again, in the lab.

'_Great,'_ I thought, '_Another night of sleeping in an office chair, my spine will never forgive me for this.'_ I stretched, a tightness in my muscles.

"Good afternoon Tony," she said, in a voice that was slightly less than her usual cheeriness.

"Okay, what's up Pepper," realizing that this probably meant bad news for me, whatever it was.

"So, do you know of Murphy's law?" she asked, uh oh, that definitely meant bad news for me.

"Yeah…that anything that can go wrong will," I said, suspicion apparent in my voice.

"And you know how you said that you didn't want to talk to Vlad Masters?" she asked.

"Yeah…" I said slowly, hoping she wasn't implying what I think she is implying.

"Well, guess who emailed me this morning," she announced, confirming my suspicions.

"You have got to be kidding me," I said and she shook her head.

"He said that he would be here at the end of the month and wanted to set up a meeting because he said that he didn't think that you two 'got to bargain' as much as he would have liked," she told me.

This time, I shook my head. "No, there is something else going on here. I got hacked last night."

Pepper's eyes widened in disbelief.

"And it was by a kid who lives in Amity Park and is best friends with that other kid that looks like Danielle," I finished.

"Well that's really…suspicious, or impressive?" she said finally, "So you think Vlad is somehow involved in this?"

"Well he certainly isn't coming here to do business, last time I turned him down he said something along the lines of 'Mark my words Tony Stark, no one says 'no' to Vlad Masters! You will rue the day you rejected my offer,'" I quoted.

"So…what now?" she asked.

"Well we have almost three weeks to prepare for whatever he is planning, but, in that time, we have to figure out what Danielle is hiding from us. This is all centered around her," I told Pepper.

"You know Tony, it might help if she knew she could trust us…you know, maybe if you told her that you are Iron Man—" she tried to suggest, but I cut her off.

"Oh no, we still don't know her that well. How do know that all of this," I gestured to the screen, "Isn't some kind of scheme to infiltrate Stark Industries?"

Pepper rolled her eyes, "Okay Tony, whatever you say. All I'm saying is that—" again she was cut off, this time by a police report on the screen.

"Speaking of," I said with a smirk, "Duty calls." Again she rolled her eyes, but this time she left the lab as I suited up. I flew out of the lab and downtown. I had only caught the gist of the article something about something attacking downtown blah blah blah.

"Jarvis, what am I looking for?" I asked.

"Something regarding a spectral image running amuck in the city," he told me.

I paused midflight, dropping a few feet in the air. "Wait a minute, are you saying I'm on a _ghost_ hunt?" I asked in disbelief.

"it would appear so sir," he replied.

"Well, what am I even supposed to be looking for? I mean—AHHHHH—" I screamed as I was suddenly swiped out of the air by a large green paw that had come out of no where.

"What the HELL was that?" I asked Jarvis when I managed to catch myself and once again propel myself upward.

"It would appear that that was a ghost bear sir," he replied.

'_A ghost bear, and hear I thought that I had seen everything,' _I thought.

"Well, where'd it go?" I asked.

"I am picking up an electromagnetic field approximately twenty yards to the northeast from your position," he informed me. I turned in that direction, and not even a second later, the green form appeared out of thin air. It had it's back to me, so I figured that it would be easy to knock it out of the sky. I fired at it. The beams that shoot out of my suit passed right through it. The beast turned around then, shifting it's red-eyed glare to me once again, and charged, successfully knocking me out of the sky again.

When I managed to fly back up again. I spotted the bear again. This time, it was closer to the street, terrorizing several civilians on the sidewalk. I aimed my hands at it, this time determined to wound it, when I heard a voice behind me.

"That's not going to work," I stopped abruptly, turning toward the voice. There I saw a girl floating, yes, _floating_ in the air, without even a suit or a jet pack or anything. However, that was not the only thing abnormal about this girl. For starters, she was wearing a spandex uniform, her hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail was snow white, and her entire body was _glowing. _The most eerie thing about her was her eyes. They also glowed, a neon green color that is not possible for any human to have naturally.

"Wait why? And who are you?" I asked.

"I'll answer your questions in a minute, right now I have to stop that thing," she said, and before I could argue, she had flown over to the bear and was hitting it with bursts of green energy that actually affected it. It only took a few minutes for the bear to dissolve, and not reappear. The girl flew back over to me.

"Okay, sorry about that, but, in answer to your questions, your weapons won't hurt it because it's a ghost and human weapons will pass right through it. And secondly, I am Dani Phantom," she said.

"But you're a girl," I said lamely. She gave me a 'you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me' look.

"Yeah, I know. Dani, as in Dani with an I," she told me.

"Um…okay, then what are you?" I asked.

"I'm a ghost too," she shrugged.

"But then why would you drive that one off," I asked, "shouldn't you too be on the same side?" I asked, still unable to believe that I was having a conversation with something that, ten minutes ago, I didn't believe in.

"I'm a good ghost, and, contrary to popular belief, we do actually exist," she crossed her arms, "Now, if we're done here, can I leave? I have places to be and people to see."

"Wait, can you tell me how to make weapons that are effective against ghosts?" I asked.

"Maybe another time," she smirked and vanished.

"Well, that went well sir," Jarvis said. I ignored him and flew back home where Pepper was sitting on the couch in the living room waiting for me.

Jarvis disassembled the suit as I entered and I leaned against the countertop looking at Pepper.

"So," she asked, "Do you want to pick up Danielle today, or should I?"

Dani POV-

It was the middle of eighth period and I was anxiously watching the clock instead of paying attention to the lesson like I should have been, when my ghost sense went off.

I raised my hand and asked to go to the bathroom. Issa shot me a knowing look as I walked out, and I subtly nodded in her direction. In the bathroom I changed into my ghost form and flew out. I arrived just in time to see the one and only Iron Man get tackled out of the sky by a ghost bear. He propelled himself back into the sky and aimed at the bear. Knowing that the beams would go right through the bear and possibly injure innocent people, I decided to step in.

"That's not going to work," I said. Iron Man whipped around, looking as surprised as a man in a metal suit can possibly look, he asked me,

"Wait why? And who are you?" in a somewhat metallic voice.

I told him that I would answer his questions in a minute and flew off to get the bear.

It put up a decent fight, but as far as ghosts go, it was one of the weaker ones, maybe a level two at most.

Eventually, seeing that it would not be winning this fight, the bear teleported away, hopefully, somewhere farther away where I wouldn't have to deal with it.

Then I returned to where Iron Man floated probably feeling somewhat stupid that I had just beat the bear when he couldn't. The thought gave me pride. I quickly answered his questions.

"Wait, can you tell me how to make weapons that are effective against ghosts?" he asked, catching me a little off guard. I decided that, right now, that might not be a good idea, especially considering that he doesn't know me, and could very well change his opinion on ghosts.

"Maybe another time," I finally answered, turning invisible and flying back to school. I entered the classroom again after I changed back in the bathroom. Unfortunately, the level of excitement of the lesson had not gotten any better while I was gone. I looked at the clock again.

'_Only fifteen more minutes until the end of the day.'_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Tony POV-

Later that evening, Dani, Pepper, and I all sat down at dinner.

"So how was your day Dani?" Pepper asked.

Danielle shrugged, "Fine, I guess, it's just school." I smirked to myself, such a typical teenage or, in her case, preteen, answer. Pepper nodded, frowning because she was less than content with this answer.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

"So, Pepper? Did you set up the meeting? He said it was at the end of the month right?" I asked, already knowing that she had. The date was set for the 29th, giving us exactly 21 days until his arrival.

"Meeting with who?" Danielle asked, as I assumed she would, not because she really cares who we are meeting with, but because she doesn't want to be left out of the conversation. Pepper shot me a warning look, like she was afraid that I would say something like "Vlad Masters! And we know he has something to do with you so you better confess what it is that you're hiding from us!"

But instead, I simply stated, "Vlad Masters." Danielle froze, every ounce of color draining from her already pale face, she looked like she had no idea what to say and she started to play with the ends of her hair. I almost felt bad, it seems that with two words I put way too much stress on her, but, at the same time this did confirm, without any doubt, that she was somehow involved in this. And, however she is involved, Vlad Masters absolutely terrifies her.

"Um…I'm not really hungry anymore, can I be excused," she muttered finally.

"Sure Danielle," Pepper told her, "What's wrong?"

"I just remembered that I have some homework I haven't done yet," she said, quickly standing up from the table and going down the hall to her room.

Pepper glared at me, "Are you happy now? She looks completely terrified!"

"I know, I feel bad, but I had to be absolutely sure that she was involved, I just didn't expect her to react like that," I said, focusing on my food and refusing to meet her gaze.

"What do you think that Masters did to her to make her so afraid of him?" Pepper wondered. I thought for a minute. That puzzled me too. As far as I know, Vlad Masters is just a lonely, bitter, mayor/billionaire of a small town, what would he have to do with an orphaned girl.

But then I thought, '_Maybe she's not an orphan, she never actually said that either of her parents were dead…' _But, even still, what does that have to do with anything? She said she had to do her dad's dirty work and billionaire politicians definitely have a lot…she also said her dad pretends to be nice to everyone but her and that was definitely the first impression I got from Vlad…

'_Wait, what am I thinking? That Vlad is Danielle's father? Vlad doesn't even have any children,' _And, yet, as I continued to think this, the more that I _felt_ like it was the truth. She did say her father thought of her as a mistake so maybe he kept her hidden…

"What if…Vlad is Danielle's father?" I asked.

"No…that can't be right…can it?" Pepper asked. Thinking it over for herself, "…although, it would make sense…"

I nodded. "And if that's true…what the hell have we gotten Danielle into?"

"Maybe I should go talk to her," Pepper announced, standing up and walking down the hall. I barely heard her because I was still piecing things together in my mind.

'_Then, what does that have to do with that Daniel Fenton kid?' _I wondered, then I remembered that Danielle said something to her friend about her cousin Danny.

'_No wonder they look alike, he is her cousin.' _But that still doesn't explain why her cousin's friend hacked my system.

'_Maybe it was to warn her about her father?' _I thought. But why would she need to be warned, I am the biggest weapons distributer in the county. I decided that there must be something I don't know about Vlad Masters too.

At this moment, Pepper came from the hallway, a look of confusion on her face.

"She wasn't in there…" Pepper said.

I shrugged, "She probably just went for a walk on the beach. You can confront her when she gets back. Meanwhile, I have an entirely different search to do downstairs," I told her, standing up to go to the lab.

Dani POV-

Vlad is coming here. After I excused myself from dinner, I was practically shaking with anxiety. Tony said he didn't even like Vlad, but Vlad had contacted him to make an appointment. And because Tony doesn't know about me or Vlad, he doesn't know that there is probably some kind of evil scheme behind him coming here, one that probably involves melting me down into ectoplasm.

I went into the bathroom, still shaking, transformed and flew out, needing the open air to clear my head. I floated above the clouds, scanning the busy city below me. For a second, I considered taking Iron Man up on his offer and telling him how to make ghost weapons, but I quickly reconsidered. For all I know, Iron Man could be working for Vlad (of course I thought it would be unlikely, but, anything's possible).

After a few hours, I decided to go back, floating down through the house and into my bathroom. Ghost, who had been asleep on the tile, his paws in the air, was suddenly startled awake. The drowsy puppy blinked at me, then growled, baring his teeth and stepping closer to me.

'_He doesn't know my ghost form,' _I thought, '_he thinks I'm a threat.' _I quickly changed back.

"Ghost, look it's just me, it's okay," I told the dog, sticking out my hand. Ghost stopped, and cocked his head to the side, before finally running up to me and tackling me with slobbery kisses.

"Hey, yeah, that's a good boy," I told him, pushing him off of me.

There was a knock on my bedroom door.

"Danielle, sweetie can we talk to you?" I heard Pepper's voice.

"Okay, I'll be out in a minute," I replied. Preparing to lie my butt off, I came out of the bathroom and my bedroom and went down the hall to where Tony and Pepper were waiting for me in the living room.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Tony POV-

"Hey Pepper, take a look at this," I called to her when we were down in the lab, waiting for Danielle to come back. I pulled up the surveillance footage from when she left dinner and went to her room.

"What is it?" Pepper asked, leaning over my chair to see the screen.

"Well, here is Danielle going into her room, then she goes into her bathroom and…that's it, she didn't go out. Then here you are," I pulled up Pepper walking into Dani's room and bathroom and finding nothing, which proved that the footage had not been tampered with.

"Wait…how is that possible?" she asked me.

I shook my head, wondering the same thing. "I don't know, but when she gets back, we need to find out." Pepper nodded, "In the mean time, I think I'm going to do a little more research on her 'father.' Jarvis, do a search on Vlad Masters."

"Yes sir," Jarvis replied, pulling up a page on the mayor of Amity Park. In fact, from what I found, it was a surprise that he was elected mayor at all, he had only moved to Amity Park from Wisconsin shortly before the elections.

'_Maybe that's the dirty work Danielle was talking about…' _I pondered. I even managed to hack into Vlad's home computer. But most of the files were so tightly guarded that I couldn't hack into them for more than a few seconds at a time. And the things that were not as tightly guarded where things that I didn't really want to see: pictures (obviously photo shopped) of Maddie Fenton. I even found a holographic simulation for Maddie. Um…weird.

'_So Vlad had pictures of Danielle's aunt, a married woman on his computer? And I thought he was nuts before,' _I shook my head, quickly closing out.

I went back upstairs where I found Pepper pacing in front of the hallway.

"Pepper, calm down," I told her, "I'm sure she'll be home soon, she's been gone for an hour now."

"I know…that's what worries me…what if something happened to her?" Pepper exclaimed, obviously concerned.

I shook my head, "I don't know what it is, but for some reason, I have a feeling that Danielle can take care of herself."

"Well, I'm going to go see if she's back yet," Pepper announced, walking down the hallway.

A few seconds she returned.

"She'll be out in a few seconds," Pepper told me, I was actually surprised that Danielle was back, especially considering the alarm system I had engaged after she left, had not been triggered.

Dani POV-

I was, well, nervous, about whatever they had to talk to me about.

"Where were you?" Tony asked, not like a concerned parent, not accusatory, but simply like he was confused as to where I was.

"I went for a walk on the beach," I said, the lie coming easily. Tony opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, but Pepper cut him off.

"Danielle, honey, we need you to be honest with us. What is really bothering you?" she asked, her eyes full of concern.

"Nothing," I stated, already breaking the honesty policy.

"Listen, Danielle, we know that Vlad is your father, okay? And we know that there is something that you are not telling us," Tony announced bluntly. My jaw dropped and my heart started racing while Pepper shot Tony an angry glare.

I didn't say anything for a few minutes. Finally I muttered, "How did you find out," very quietly.

"Well, we didn't actually find out until just now, I just had a hunch before," Tony smirked, but I was still too stunned to respond.

"So now you understand why I was so freaked out about him coming here?" I asked. Tony and Pepper nodded.

"But there is still something that you aren't telling us," Pepper said gently. I shook my head.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you," I whispered, feeling bad, but not bad enough to give up my biggest secret.

"Why not?" Tony asked.

"Because it could put other people in danger," I told them.

"Would this other person be your cousin?" Tony asked me, and I was stunned, and at the expression on my face Tony added, "Yeah, I put that together too."

"Yes, him, his friends, his family, and also you two," I said seriously.

He shrugged, "Dani, I think we are perfectly capable of handling ourselves."

"You don't know what Vlad is capable of," I told them.

"Then why don't you tell us," Pepper insisted.

I shook my head, "Like I already said, I can't. I'm really sorry and I feel bad. I really wish that I could but that is just way too much of a risk. You're just going to have to either figure it out on your own or stop asking because I am not going to change my mind," I informed them.

"Okay," Tony said, putting his hands up, "We won't ask you to tell us anymore."

Pepper looked upset, but there was no way I could tell them my secret without giving away Danny's secret too, and that's not my secret to tell. Plus, they already know way too much, I figure that it is only a matter of time before they figure it out, and by then, maybe I will be far enough away so that Vlad won't be able to put them in danger.

We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes, before Tony finally stood up.

"Who wants ice cream sundaes?"

I smiled, and followed Tony and Pepper into the kitchen.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry this upload took longer than I expected, I've had a lot of homework, and today I had to take the PSAT test, not to mention, I needed to catch up on my sleep (which I had been lacking in until this past weekend). On top of that, I had kind of hit writer's block, I mean I know what is going to happen, it's just a matter of connecting my ideas together with actual words. I'm rambling now, so I'll just say: Here's the next chapter, enjoy!**

Chapter 13:

Tony POV-

The next few days passed uneventfully, although Dani never seemed to calm down. She was constantly fidgety and looking over her shoulder as if she was expecting her father to pop out of no where. I told her that we have a better security system than the Pentagon, but she didn't seem assured. I feel bad that it is my fault that she is so stressed out, considering that I am the one who told her about her father coming, but at the same time I am relieved that we have finally gotten some answers out of her, even if they were vague.

Dani was currently at school, and I was tinkering with the Iron Man suit in the lab, when Jarvis suddenly spoke to me.

"Sir, there is a FedEx truck at the front gate," he told me.

"What?" I asked surprised, I had not recently ordered anything, and I usually don't use FedEx anyway.

"Sir, it seems that you have not placed any recent orders, shall I tell the man to leave?" Jarvis asked.

"No Jarvis, that's okay, I'll go handle this," I replied, standing up and opening up the garage door of the lab. When I got to the front gate, the FedEx truck was already gone, but a package was placed at the gate. I opened the gate, just wide enough to grab the package before quickly closing it again.

I read the paper label on the box, it was addressed to Danielle. I shook my head.

'_What now Danielle,' _I wondered. There was no sending address, but I had a hunch that it had come from Amity Park, Illinois. I walked into the front door, setting the box on the kitchen counter. I looked at the clock. It was only 2:30, Dani and Pepper would not be home for another hour and a half.

'_Maybe I should take a peek…' _I thought to myself reaching toward the box, but I quickly pulled back, remembering that I should be respecting her privacy considering that invading her privacy went _so _well the last time. Telling myself this, I composed myself and walked towards the lab. I only got about half way before I turned around and raced to the box.

"You know what," I told myself, "This is my house and I need to know what comes in or goes out of it." And, with that said, I ripped open the clear packing tape.

The contents surprised me.

Inside of the box there were five items: three identical silver bracelets with neon green and light blue stones, some kind of high tech…soup thermos? Why would she be sent a soup thermos? But I was really surprised when I picked up the last item.

A FREAKING pistol! Not that I have a problem with guns, especially considering that I have made almost all of them, but that should not be something that a 12 year old girl gets in the mail. How did it get through the mail in the first place? Accompanying the weird items was a note, written in a foreign language that even I did not know.

I shook my head and picked up the gun. This gun was different, I could tell, it didn't look like any other gun I had ever seen. On an impulse, I clicked the safety on and slipped the gun into the waist line of my jeans so that it was resting on my lower back. I pulled my shirt to cover the gun up. Then, tearing off the old packing tape, I dug around in the drawer until I had found a roll of my own. I taped the box back up so that it looked like it had never been tampered with, leaving it on the counter for Danielle to find and went down to the lab.

I sealed the lab behind me, pulling out the gun and placing it on my scanning table.

"Jarvis," I said, "Scan this and give me the details."

"Yes sir," Jarvis replied, the scanning light clicking on, "Scan complete, I am pulling up the details on the screen. The label reads Fenton Works, which my research has discovered to be the name of all inventions made by the parents of young Daniel Fenton."

I scoffed under my breath, "No surprise there. What else Jarvis?" I asked slightly louder.

"Apparently sir," Jarvis replied, "The gun fires some substance that was not known to my system. Upon further research, I discovered that this substance was known as ectoplasm, this was also discovered through a website created by the ghost-hunting Fenton family."

"Really? They're _ghost _hunters?" I asked, holding back a laugh.

"Yes sir," Jarvis replied, obviously serious.

"So this is a weapon used to hunt ghosts…" I mused out loud, picking up the silver and neon green pistol in my hand and turning it over.

"It would appear so sir," Jarvis told me.

I turned toward the back wall of my lab, where so many of my weapons had been tested before, and fired twice. The bullets exploded against the wall, leaving a green and charred crater.

I quickly disassembled the gun, leaving it on the table, before I went to inspect what damage was done. The crater was only about an inch deep into the solid concrete and was about two feet wide, but it was obvious that something had exploded just judging by the burn marks. I scooped up some of the green goo that was running down the walls.

"Ectoplasm," I guessed.

"Indeed sir," Jarvis told me.

Depositing the sludge on the table with the rest of the disassembled gun I said, "Jarvis, I want you to run a full analysis of each of these pieces and especially that gunk."

"Yes sir," he replied, just in time for me hear the upstairs door open.

'_Wow, has it been an hour and a half already?' _I wondered, heading towards the stairs.

"Oh, and Jarvis, don't mention any of this to Pepper or Dani," I told him.

"My lips are sealed sir, metaphorically speaking, of course," he replied.

Dani POV-

Pepper picked Issa and I up from school again, she was sleeping over tonight. And honestly, as much as I wanted to make sure that she and Tony and Pepper would be kept out of harms way, I knew that I would rest better knowing that I had a witness in case Vlad decided to phase though Tony's house and abduct me in the middle of the night.

When we got hoe I saw a large box sitting on the counter, I barely had time to question it before Tony came from that hallway I'm not allowed to go down.

"Hey Dani," he greeted me, nodding at Issa and smiling at Pepper, "That package came for you today."

"Really?" I questioned, before I remembered that Danny had told me in his message that he would be sending me supplies, "Okay, we'll just take it to my room then." I picked up the box off of the counter and carried it to my room.

Once I was in my room, Issa and I ripped off the tape. Inside of the box were three bracelets and a Fenton Thermos. Really Danny? Is that all I get, not even any weapons.

Then I saw the note at the bottom of the box. It was written in Esperanto, a language that I had learned in the short time I had spent in the Ghost Zone and met Wulf.

It read…

'Dani,

I hope you are getting this. These are just some supplies I sent to help keep you safe in case Vlad attacks. We have been watching his activity but we can't seem to figure out what he is planning. I'll let you know as soon as anything is revealed.

-Danny

P.S. those are not just bracelets, when you turn the green center stone they become a wrist ray. I gave you a couple because I figure you have friends you might want to protect too. And I'm assuming you told someone your secret.'

I shook my head, smiling.

"What? What does it say? What language is that in?" Issa asked, leaning over my shoulder.

"Esperanto," I told her, reaching into the box and pulling out a bracelet, "Here, this is for you."

She admired the bracelet on her wrist, "It's pretty."

"It's also more than a bracelet," I told her. She looked confused for a second but a look of realization crossed her face, "I suppose I should train you to you it…Danny trained Sam and Tucker." Issa's eyes widened and she nodded eagerly.

I grinned, slipping a bracelet on my own wrist and picking up the other one.

"Okay, put Ghost's leash on him," I told her, "I'll be right back."

I opened my bedroom door and raced down the hall.

"Pepper," I called, still running down the hall. She looked up as I skidded to a stop in front of her, "This is for you. We made it in art class," I lied, slipping the bracelet onto her wrist and securing it.

"Aww, Dani," she beamed, "It's beautiful."

"Thanks," I called behind me, because I was already halfway back down the hall to my room. I closed the door behind me.

Issa was already perched on the bed, a leash attached to Ghost's collar.

"Alright," I grinned, "Let's go, and we went outside to a secluded part of the beach where I could train her."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Dani POV-

Issa was not a natural at ghost hunting, at all. After three hours, the only thing she had managed to hit was sand, and almost Ghost, who managed to duck out of the way before she singed his left ear.

The closest she was able to get to the target was 2 and a half feet. Needless to say, I hope my life will never depend on Clarissa with a wrist ray. However, teaching her some Esperanto had been a little more successful.

I awoke the next morning, Saturday morning, in my bed. Issa was still passed out in my hammock chair as the sun started to pour in through the windows. I rubbed my eyes, looking at the high-tech clock on my nightstand which read 8:30 am.

'_Weird,' _I thought, '_I hardly ever wake up this early on weekends.' _Deciding that I would not be able to fall back asleep, I got out of bed, floating a centimeter off of the ground, so that I wouldn't wake Issa, but still pretending to walk. On my desk I had a calendar laid out, with the 29th circled in red marker. As of today, I only had seventeen days until Vlad's arrival, and I had yet to think of a decent plan.

Ideally, I would be able to get away, far away so that Vlad wouldn't go after Tony or Pepper, but that doesn't change the fact that he still has a meeting with Tony on the 29th at Stark Industries. And it's not like I want to leave, this is the only home I've ever had, and Tony and Pepper actually care about me. And for that reason, if I were to get away, something tells me that Tony and Pepper would find a way to track me down. I could stay at Issa's while Vlad is here, but that puts her in danger too, and, judging by her aim, that is not a position I would want to put her in.

I opened my bedroom door, quietly, and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Ghost, who had head me leave the room, followed behind me, his nails clicking on the floor. I scooped a cup of food for him and dumped in his bowl which had recently been moved from my bedroom to the kitchen floor.

There was a fresh plate of cinnamon rolls on the counter, which, I made me guess that Pepper must have been here earlier, realized we were both asleep, and then left for the office without Tony. I plucked one off of the plate, licking the icing that had dripped onto my finger, before taking a bite of the still-warm pastry. I had just popped the last bite in my mouth, when my ghost sense went off. I cursed under my breath before quickly running down the hall, scribbling a note to Issa in Esperanto, before going into the bathroom and phasing out of the house.

Tony POV-

I was up most of the night following my discovery of that pistol in Danielle's care package. And one though kept racing through my thoughts.

'_Why the hell would Dani need this dangerous weapon in the first place?' _ After an in depth analysis, I came to the conclusion that there was more to this weapon than just an ordinary gun. All kinds of checks and safeties had to be installed just to protect the user from the dangerous and unstable nature of ectoplasm.

Which only made a dangerous weapon, that much more dangerous.

I awoke the next morning, once again, in the lab.

'_Is this what having kids is like? Always worrying and not ever getting a good night's sleep?' _I wondered to myself for only a second before I realized what had woken me up.

The I-have-to-go-do-hero-business alarm, was going off. I sighed, before suiting up and flying out.

According to Jarvis, it was another ghost instance, so, I flew back to the house, quickly assembling the pistol and taking it with me.

By the time I got downtown, that ghost girl, Dani Phantom, was already there. She was in the process of battling two ghosts at once. She blasted one ghost and it tumbled to the ground, then she turned her attention to the other ghost, blasting it to. After a few seconds, she pulled out…a thermos, maybe, or maybe not, because that would be stupid unless you are having ghost soup. I decided it must be some kind of portable containment unit, and she sucked the ghost inside. What she didn't notice was that the ghost that she had knocked to the ground. She was too far away for her to hear me tell her to turn around, so I fired at the ghost.

The ghost girl whipped around, surprised to here a gun shot directly behind her, then she saw the ghost and promptly sucked him in too. Afterwards, she looked for the source of the shot, me.

She flew over to me, a look of confusion on her face.

"Is…is that a Fenton ectopistol?" she asked, cautiously.

'_She knows what this is…' _I thought, suspicious, because maybe she ties into the mystery too.

"Um…yeah," I replied.

"Where did you get it?" she asked, her tone had a slight hint of accusation to it, which I suppose is justified considering I now have a weapon that can harm her.

"Well, I did a little research since the last time we met, and I got one…" Um, wow, that sounded a lot better in my head.

She didn't look convinced as she studied me like a threat. I had time to look at her too, she seemed, for some reason, familiar, but I didn't know anyone who had recently died, especially not a young girl. In her hand was the containment unit, and upon further inspection, I realized it was actually a thermos. The _exact _same one that had been in Danielle's care package, right down the Fenton label that also graced her weapon.

Now, I was even more convinced that this ghost had something to do with everything that I had been trying to figure out lately.

"Um.." I cleared my throat, "Is this something you are familiar with?" I asked. She squinted at me, still obviously suspicious.

"You could say that, although with that particular weapon, I am more familiar, at least on the receiving end, with DALV weapons, which is basically just the same design because it was stolen from Fenton Works," she told me, sounding like it was personally offensive to her.

I nodded in understanding, "It makes sense, you can't make a great weapon without someone else trying to get their hands on it. Take my suit for example, people are trying to recreate it all over the world," I told her.

She looked at me thoughtfully, and once again, I had the nagging feeling that I should be recognizing her.

Shaking it off, I turned to leave. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then."

"Electromagnetic fields," she called when I wasn't to far away.

"What?" I asked, coming a little closer to her.

"Ghosts give off electromagnetic fields, which you could use to help find them when they are in town," she informed me.

"Okay, why are you suddenly giving me this information now?" I wondered, the ghost girl bit her lip, like she was trying to figure out what to saw.

"Um…" she muttered, "Let's just say, that if a light blue-green vampire ghost with stupid hair comes into town, I could really use some help," she looked at me, like she was nervous.

"Why? What's so bad about this ghost?" I asked her.

"He's really powerful and dangerous and—" she was cut off by a phone suddenly ringing.

I recognized the first few notes as Fighter by Christina Aguilera, and suddenly Dani Phantom pulled a iPhone out of a pocket I hadn't seen. She pursed her lips.

"I've got to go," she said, "Thanks for the help!" she called as she quickly flew off.

Flying home, gave me time to wonder how Dani Phantom got a hold of that thermos.

'_Maybe that was the whole point of Danielle getting the package,' _ so that she could give the ghost weapons to the ghost girl to…protect her? But from what? Ghosts? Why would Danielle need to be protected from ghosts?

_Maybe it has something to d with that ghost Dani Phantom mentioned,'_ I thought, '_But what does that have to do with her father?' _

Once again, there was another question that I didn't quite know the answer to, but I was going to find out.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Dani POV-

That was…weird, where would Iron Man get a Fenton Ecto-pistol, as far as I know, they don't usually give those out lightly. But maybe because he is a superhero he could pull a few strings?

I shook my head, there was no point in getting myself worked up about that now, the important thing is that he is on my side, or, at least he _was _on my side. I just hoped he wouldn't change his mind and suddenly think of me as a threat.

I floated into the bathroom and came out to see why Issa had called me in the middle of my conversation with Iron Man.

I crossed my arms and arched an eyebrow at her.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You called me," I replied in a 'what-do-you-_think_' voice.

"Oh yeah," she shrugged like it was nothing.

"I could have been in the middle of…something!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms in the air.

"Were you?" she asked, now it was her turn to arch her eyebrow.

"No, but I _was _in the middle of a conversation," I glared at her.

"Oh, sorry," she said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes and sat down on my unmade bed. Ghost jumped up next to me, licking my hand. I laughed scratching his ears.

Tony POV-

When I arrived back at the lab, I was confused. More layers seemed to be piling on to this mystery as the days went by. None of this was adding up, at least not logically, and being that my brain _only_ thinks logically, my thoughts were kind of a mess right now. I paced back and forth in the lab, thinking over everything that had been recently happening.

'_First,' _I decided, '_I'll look up that ghost that the ghost girl was telling me about.' _

"Jarvis, do a search on the ghost that Dani Phantom was describing to me," I told him

"Right away sir," Jarvis said, imputing the description into the computer and running the description against all ghost sightings. Several files popped up on the screen, mostly by some crazy people who believed that they had been possessed by this ghost, but I was able to find several "legitimate" claims about this ghost. Including one article about how the "Wisconsin Ghost" was spotted in and attacked, surprise, surprise, Amity Park, as seen by Jack and Maddie Fenton.

I sighed, this was endless, every time I searched, I ended up going in circles. Deciding that it would be better if I focused on something else, I started thinking about the ghost girl herself.

"I know that girl was familiar…" I said to myself. Suddenly, I had an idea, "Jarvis, run a facial recognition scan of everyone in the system."

"Yes sir," Jarvis replied, and faces flashed across the screen rapidly, "Done sir. I only received only one good match in the system, but I decided to also run your recent searches, and both results received an 89% match."

One the screen flashed, Daniel Fenton first, and then Danny Phantom. The next greatest matches at 43% and 44% were Mr. and Mrs. Fenton.

I can't say I wasn't expecting something like that after everything I had found that traced back to this boy.

"Jarvis, none of them are her," I sighed.

"Yes sir, but they do, or at least most of them do, have the same facial structure as her," Jarvis replied, "And it should make sense that the ghost girl would have similar features to her male ghostly counterpart."

That sparked something in my brain.

"Jarvis, run Daniel Fenton against Danny Phantom," I ordered.

"Yes sir," after only a few seconds, both images popped back up on the screen, "99.34% match sir."

"Hmm, that would mean that, more than likely, Daniel Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person, and if Dani Phantom is the female counterpart of Danny Phantom and Danny Phantom and Daniel Fenton are the same person than…Jarvis run Danielle against our ghost girl," I told him.

"Sir, no images of Danielle are in the system," Jarvis replied, I nodded slowly, that would explain why she would not have come up in the initial search.

"Take an image from the security footage in her bedroom, and while you're at it, run her picture against the boys too" I told him.

"Right away sir," Jarvis agreed. I tapped my fingers on the desk, waiting for Jarvis to return an answer to me, "Results returned Danielle had a 99.34% match with the ghost girl and a 89% match with both of the boys," I nodded, this was almost exactly the answer I had anticipated.

"So…" I tapped my fingers on the desk again, "Danielle is the ghost girl…the only question is how? How can someone be half-dead?" Then I remembered something else, she had also had a partial match to Daniel's parents.

"Jarvis, run Danielle against Daniel's parents, and then against Vlad Masters," I ordered.

"Danielle has a 43% match with Mr. Fenton, and a 44% match with Mrs. Fenton, but she only has a 19.82% match with Vlad Masters," Jarvis spurted out the information.

"That would mean, that either Dani _really _takes after her mom, or Vlad masters is not actually her father. It would make more sense that the Fenton's are her parents, but she referred to Danny Fenton as her cousin…how could that make any sense?"

"I do not know sir," Jarvis answered my rhetorical question.

"And Danielle definitely won't tell me, she didn't even trust me enough to tell me her secret," I said, actually feeling a little hurt by this information. Then I remembered why she wouldn't tell me, because of this secret she is constantly in danger from Vlad…

"Jarvis, run a facial recognition match between Vlad masters and the 'Wisconsin Ghost,'" I told him.

"99. 34% match sir," Jarvis affirmed.

I cursed, "No wonder she has been so freaked out, her so-called father could pass through this house at any moment and take her and there would be absolutely nothing that I could do about it!" I exclaimed, suddenly really worried about Dani and feeling really helpless. I decided not to tell Pepper about this, she would only worry, but, I realized, something had to be done to protect Danielle.

I looked at the gun that I had left on the table, once again disassembled.

"Jarvis, we need to add some upgrades to the Iron Man suit."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Tony POV-

Alright, so I figured out her secret…kind of, but what now? I still don't know how it is even possible for her to be half _dead_! Like seriously, how did she die, or half die, or…whatever. And it's not like I can really just _ask _her_, _something tells me that she would not react well to that.

And quite honestly, I have no idea how I will be able to protect her form her also half dead "father." Vlad is even more of a psychopath than I thought.

Then I thought about the second, or maybe it was the third day she was here, when that bizarre electromagnetic sensor had gone off when Pepper and I were in the lab discussing Danielle. I shook my head, a light smile playing on my lips, obviously that had been her, spying on us. Thankfully, I hadn't had the Iron Man suits out at the time.

'_But would it really be so bad if she found out?' _part of my brain whispered to me. I thought this over for a second. '_No,' _I realized, finally, it wouldn't be so bad if she found out who I am, but for some reason I couldn't convince myself that telling her would be a good idea. Maybe because, at least for now, I still had the element of surprise on my side, or maybe because part of me still didn't trust her completely? '_No' _I told myself, trying to be convinced that that was not the reason, other than not telling me a secret, in which I am in no place to judge, Danielle has not done anything not to deserve my trust.

'_The question is however, how do I get her to trust _me_ enough to tell me her secret on her own?' _ at this moment, the only option seemed like the Iron man suit on the wall. I sighed, even if I was planning on telling her, I would want it to be after all the improvements were done, so that she would know that I would be able to help her, but, with the unstable behavior of the ectoplasm, that could take a few more days.

Feeling the need to occupy my thoughts with something, anything, else, I amped up the electromagnetic sensors in my own home and then I hacked the security cameras that were posted all around the city. It only took a few minutes to install the electromagnetic sensors into all of those cameras too.

'_There, now when Vlad shows his head in this town, I'll know,' _I pushed my chair back from the computer, satisfied, for the moment. But, once again, my thoughts wandered to forming a plan to get her to tell me her secret, and once again, I came up blank.

Suddenly Jarvis, came on overhead.

"Sir," he told me, "Miss Danielle and Miss Pots, request your presence upstairs.

"Okay, Jarvis," I replied, turning off the lights but leaving on the luminescent screens of the computers, locked with an encrypted password, of course.

When I arrived in the living room, Pepper stopped impatiently tapping her foot long enough to purse her lips at me.

"Tony," she glared, disappointedly, "I told you, we have that banquet today and you look like you haven't showered in days."

To be honest, I don't remember the last time I showered, or even the last time I had been out of the house (with the exception of the Iron Man hero work) because all my thoughts, time, and resources had been tied to Danielle.

"Yeah, I remember," I lied with a smirk.

"Really?" she arched an eyebrow at me, "It's in an hour."

"Oh," was all I could say. A few seconds ago, I hadn't noticed that both Pepper and Dani were dressed up. Now that I was paying attention, I noticed that Pepper was in an emerald green dress that came right above her knees and Danielle was in a elegant yet simple blood red dress that came down to her knees with a black ribbon around the middle. Both of their hair was pulled back in a messy, yet sophisticated bun. I gave Danielle a 'why-didn't-you-tell-me-I-we-had-to-go-to-a-banquet-tonight' look, to which she shrugged.

"I figured you knew, plus, I only found out like thirty minutes ago," she told me. I found it amazing that she would be able to pull off that look in thirty minutes, unlike every woman I had ever met, Pepper included, but hey, she's not like most girls.

"Okay, I'll be ready in ten," I told them before rushing down the opposite hallway to my room. I quickly jumped in the shower and quickly jumped out, putting on the suit that Pepper had laid out on my dresser. Then I walked out of my room.

"That was eleven minutes," Danielle smirked.

"Let's just go," Pepper said, hurrying the two of us to the door, "We don't want to be late."

I wanted to point out that we would still be about half an hour early when we got there, but I didn't, instead I let her shuffle us into the limo.

I glanced at Danielle out of the corner of my eye, she wore a little reddish gloss on her lips and a very faint amount of eyeliner, not that she needed very much makeup. The slight pink tint on her cheeks was natural, a result of being on the beach and in the pool with Issa yesterday and earlier today. She noticed me studying her.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Nothing," I smiled, "You just look very nice." Danielle smiled, blushing a little.

"Thanks," she replied, still smiling.

As I predicted, we arrived at the banquet twenty minutes later, still half an hour early, but the paparazzi was awaiting us already. Dani stepped out of the limo first, followed by Pepper, and myself but the press didn't seem to care about me so much as they bombarded Dani.

"Danielle," one woman asked, "What is it like being the adopted daughter of Tony Stark?"

"It's great," she said, calmly and smoothly as we continued to walk forward.

'_Like a pro,' _I thought to myself, as I praised how Dani was already so good at handling the reporters.

"Danielle, is it true that you're Tony's long-lost niece?"

"Danielle, is it true Tony bought you a car?"

"Danielle, how is Tony different at home than he is in public?"

They continued throwing random questions at her, but Dani simply ignored them. I was glad that the attention was off of me…well kind of. I walked up behind Pepper and put my hand on the small of her back. She blushed, but continued to look forward, a slight smile on her lips. Finally I got a question of my own.

"Tony, what has your experience as a parent been like?" another woman asked me.

"Well," I grinned, "I'm still getting used to it." By this time, we were at the entrance to the banquet.

"Tony and Dani will answer all questions at the press conference after the dinner," Pepper announced. I frowned at her, she hadn't told me about the press conference, but after a few seconds, I shrugged it off, most of the questions would be for Dani anyway.

On the inside of the banquet hall, were long tables lined with black and red satin table cloths, and white porcelain dinnerware.

The banquet went easily, mostly it was just a bunch of celebrities or rich people (not as rich as me) who had paid a hell of a lot to be there. During the dinner many of the people sitting around us would lean over and talk to Danielle, considering that she was the only kid there.

"I will admit, I could not believe that Tony Stark would have adopted a daughter until now. You seem much too sweet to be stuck with him," an Ambassador to somewhere mentioned to Danielle with a smile.

She smiled in reply, easily achieving the sweet, innocent, girl look that I knew she was going for, "Thank you. Of course, Tony might say that I am only sweet to those who don't know me."

The Ambassador laughed, thinking she was joking.

After dinner, Danielle and I were moved to the press conference along with a few other people. They went first and then Dani and I stepped up together.

Reporters immediately raised their hands.

"I have one for Danielle," a man asked, Danielle nodded and the man continued, "What were your parents like before you went to live with Tony and what happened to them?"

"Well, I never knew my mom and my father was an alcoholic who…abused me sometimes," she told them, obviously well rehearsed, the reporters didn't speak, "And as for what happened to them, my father died while driving intoxicated and I have no idea what happened to my mother. Next."

"Tony," another man asked, "How did you react when you found out that you would now be responsible for a girl and a dog?"

I wondered for a second how they knew about the dog, but, they're the press they know almost everything. I opened my mouth to speak.

"I've got this one. He said 'you can stay but there is no way you are keeping the dog,'" Dani told them.

"But then she looked at me with puppy dog eyes—" I jumped in.

"And he said 'I don't want to see dog piss on the floor,'" Danielle finished, causing the audience to laugh.

Danielle opened her mouth to speak again but a blue mist came out. It was faint, so faint that I would not have been able to notice it if she hadn't been standing directly next to me.

"Shit," she cursed so quietly that her lips didn't even move. She tapped her fingers on the podium.

"Um…I'll be right back," she told the reporters politely, before quickly stepping off of the stage and rushing to the bathroom.

"I told her not to drink so much soda at dinner," I said into the microphone, directing the attention off of Danielle and back on to me. Several people chuckled at my remark, but most kept turning around, waiting for her to come out.

I didn't quite know what that blue mist was, but I'm sure it had something to do with fighting ghosts.

'_Hmmm,' _I thought, '_Maybe I can ask her about that later.'_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Dani POV-

I quickly dismissed myself from the press conference, sighing as I ran into the bathroom. I transformed in a stall after I made sure no one was in the bathroom, phasing out of the building. Very few sun rays still peeked over the ocean at the horizon, allowing me to see the lights of the city in the fading twilight sun. The passing of another day made Vlad's "visit" seem all the more inevitable.

My ghost sense went off again, this time it was stronger, so that meant that the ghost was closer. I tensed, slowly turning circles so that I could better scan the area. Finally from up above me I heard a voice, and I groaned.

"BEWARE! I am the Box Ghost, I have power over all containers cardboard. You cannot—"

"Oh shut up!" I exclaimed in exasperation, sucking him in the thermos and cutting off his annoying endless rant. "I can't believe I left the press conference for _that!" _I quickly capped the thermos and smirked at it in my hand.

"It must be getting very crowded in there," I said mostly to myself, but partially to the ghosts inside (that is, if they can hear me), considering that I've already stuck three ghosts in there.

'_Hmm…maybe Danny has a portable thermos dump thing,' _I mused, and made a mental note to ask him if I got another letter from him. The reflection of the sun had now completely vanished, and all that was left of the day was the slightly bluer sky above the ocean. I flew back into the bathroom, checked my hair in the mirror, and went back out into the press conference.

It appeared that most of the people had already left, whether it was because they were bored or because they already had their story, I didn't know. Tony grinned at me from the podium as I joined him. We answered the rest of the questions and then got into the limo and went home.

The ride home was quiet, not awkward but quiet. I stared out of the tinted windows at the passing city, happy to be going home where I could just put on my pajamas and relax.

And I did. Once we pulled up to the front of the house, I got out with Tony and Pepper and went down the hall to my room where I quickly changed out of my dress and into a t-shirt and some sweatpants, propping myself up at my desk. I was supposed to be doing my homework, but that could be done tomorrow, right now, all I was doing was doodling on my notes. I had created a geometric design with a black pen an I was so wrapped up in it, I barely heard Tony's footsteps brush against the floor as he came towards my room.

He came in and leaned against the doorframe like he had the first day that I was here, arms crossed, and smirking at me.

"Hey Dani," he grinned.

"Hey Tony," I replied, with a smile as he came in and sat in my hammock chair.

"So…I had something that I wanted to ask you," he told me, dropping the lighthearted façade just enough for me to take notice of the change. I squinted at him a little.

"Yeah...?" I asked, attempting to hide the edge of suspicion in my voice, Tony had gotten very close before, it was only a matter of time before he asked the right questions and figured it out.

"Why did you run off like that in the middle of the press conference?" he asked. I was taken a little aback by the pure simplicity of the question.

'_Really? That's all he want to know? After all of those hard question a few days ago, _that's _the question he asks?' _I thought to myself.

"I went to the bathroom," I told him, the lie coming easily. I was surprised when he looked back at me like he had expected…and almost…disappointed in the fact that I had lied to him.

"You see…" he started.

'_Oh here it comes,' _I braced myself.

"I would be inclined to believe that, aside from the fact, that you don't have the bladder of a five year old boy, _and _I saw some kind of blue mist come out of your mouth right before you left," he told me, a look on his face that challenged me to lie again.

At this point, I'm sure my fact had gone white as a…well, ghost, and I would have bet that my eyes were wide as I mentally cursed myself for being so careless. Tony, on the other hand, seemed amused by my expression.

He stood up.

"Come with me, I have something to show you," he told me. I stood up numbly and followed him out of the room. Most of the house was dark, aside from a single light in the kitchen, which implied that Pepper had already left for the night.

Suddenly, we turned down the hallway that I had previously been prohibited from. I hesitated a little at the entrance, not sure if he wanted me to keep going or not. Tony turned back around and motioned for me to follow. The hallway was dark too, adding to the ominous feeling that clung to the atmosphere around us. Finally we reached the end of the hallway, which had only a single glass door and keypad on the left hand side. Tony punched in a code and the door unlocked allowing us inside. Behind the frosted glass of the door, was a staircase that went down. Together we took the dark stairs down to the bottom. As we approached the lab, I began to see more light. Finally at the bottom, we were met with another door, this time clear, and Tony punched in another code, allowing us access. Only a couple of the overhead lights were on, so Tony flipped a switch, illuminating the whole room.

I saw nothing different from the last time I had floated unseen within the cement wall, but I didn't mention that to Tony, considering he didn't know I had ever been in the lab, or, maybe he did.

"Danielle," he finally spoke, moving towards a large computer screen, "There is something you should know."

**Haha, somewhat of a cliffhanger there. How will she react? How will he react. What changed Tony's mind? I will update soon to let you know the answer, oh, and sorry for not being around for a while, it was a combination of schoolwork and writer's block, not to mention now I think I'm sick. (Which really sucks with Halloween being tomorrow). Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this, please review if you did.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey peeps, just thought I'd let you know that I am uploading another chapter to make up for being MIA for a while, also I was just hit with inspiration. Ooh, I would just like to add that I am listening (and dancing like a dork) to the Ghostbusters theme song to get myself in the Halloween mood. Happy Halloween, to all of you. Consider this chapter my treat to you **

Chapter 18:

Tony POV-

After Pepper left, I went into Dani's room. She sat the desk in a comfortable-looking outfit, sketching in the margin of a sheet of notebook paper. I had fully intended to start off with that simple question and then bombard her with everything that I knew, or didn't know, about her. But, seeing her so terrified after I brought up the blue mist, I realized that I was far more likely to drive her into a panic than to actually get a confession out of her. So acting on an impulse, I stood up and made her follow me down to the lab.

The whole way down the hallway and then down the stairs I was battling with myself between continuing and turning back. But apparently, the logical part of my brain no longer had control over my legs, because they kept going. We reached the second door into the lab. Ghost followed silently behind us, his unusually quiet form adding to the overall suspense of our descent. He was so quiet, I doubt that dani even noticed the pup.

'_Well, no turning back now,' _I thought to myself as I pushed open the door.

As I suspected, Danielle was less than impressed with the lab, or at least a lot less impressed than she should have been, had this actually been the first time she had seen the lab.

"Well, Danielle," I said with a deep breath, "This is my lab, although I'm assuming you already know that."

That same look of fear flashed across her face again, before she masked it and turned to me with a, very, forced smile.

"Well, I could assume," she lied, well, I might add. If I didn't know any better, I might have believed her.

"But, like I said," I told her moving toward the switch that opened the wall of Iron Man suits, "I have something to show you. But" I hesitated, "if I show you this, you have to promise to start talking, and I mean everything." Dani gulped, but nodded after a second. I paused only a second over the switch before flipping it a minute. The wall, it seemed, wanted to hesitate for a second too, before it slid open, my shiny suits on display. Dani stared at the wall for a minute before it finally seemed to sink in for her. She tore her gaze away from the wall after a few seconds and stared at me, a look of pure surprise on her face.

"You…You're…" she stuttered.

I nodded with a smirk, "Pretty cool, huh?" I took a seat at my desk.

"Now, Dani," I told her with a stern gaze, "I think it's your turn." I pulled up another chair next to mine.

"Okay," she said, finally regaining her composure, "But first I want to know how?"

I sighed. "Okay. It started when I was in the Middle East. Long story short, I got blown up and captured, then…" I started to undo the top buttons of my shirt, "I had to have this put in my chest to keep me alive, now, I've added a few upgrades to it, but this is what helped me to escape and this is what powers the Iron Man suit. Now, it's your turn."

"You're telling me that you don't know everything already," she remarked sarcastically, crossing her arms at me.

"Well, I know, mostly, everything, but it would be nice for you to prove my theories," I told her, an equally smug look on my face, as I patted the chair behind me and buttoned up my shirt. Dani rolled her eyes, uncrossed her arms, and finally took the seat.

"Well, to know about me," she said, "You must first know about Danny. I assume you figured out that Danny Fenton is also Danny Phantom, right?" she asked.

"Well yeah, I'm surprised more people haven't figured it out," I grinned.

"So are we," she agreed before continuing the story, "Danny's parents are ghost hunters, which is why this secret cannot get out, among other reasons. But anyway, when he was 14 they built a portal to the ghost zone. It didn't work, so Danny went inside. It turns out his father put the 'on' switch on the inside and when Danny accidentally hit it, ghost DNA fused with his DNA, making him half ghost." On the floor, Ghost looked up every time his name was mentioned, cocking his head to the side.

"Then there's Vlad, who I'm sure you figured out is not actually my father. Vlad was made half-ghost in a lab accident while he was in college with Danny's parents, for that reason, he hates Danny's dad and wants to kill him in order to marry Danny's mom."

"Um…" I said, not quite sure what to think of that, although it only affirmed my idea that Vlad is insane.

"Wait, it gets weirder. Vlad found out Danny's secret while they were staying in Vlad's mansion during a class reunion. When Danny refused to side with Vlad in his evil plans, Vlad decided that there had to be other ways of getting the perfect half-ghost son. That's where I come in."

My eyes widened at what she was implying. "So you're saying that you're a…"

"Clone of Danny, yes, I am. But something must have gone wrong considering that I am twelve and a girl. Anyway, Vlad used me to try and get Danny's DNA because he convinced me that it would stabilize me. Long story short, Danny saved me, and when I started to destabilize, Danny saved me again. I didn't stay with Danny because that would mean explaining all of this to his parents, and I didn't want to run the risk of Danny getting disowned, dissected or in trouble because of me," she finished, exhaling a long breath.

"Oh...um…wow," I stuttered, not quite sure what to say.

"Anything else that you wanted to know?" she asked me.

"Um…no, I think you pretty well got it covered, thanks," I replied, "But, while we're confessing. I stole that ectopistol from your care package."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I kind of figured."

"But I did have a good reason," I said in defense, standing up and moving to another wall. I flipped another switch and revealed my final Iron Man suit, based off of the Fenton technology. This suit is still a work in progress, but it is silver and neon green, like the gun, "I made a ghost fighting Iron Man suit, so that could better protect you from Vlad. It's not done yet but—" I was cut off by Danielle giving me a hug.

"Thank you," she muttered. I was not used to this, but it wasn't bad. I awkwardly hugged her back.

"No problem, I just wanted to be able to help," I told her. She smiled at me gratefully, and I smiled back, "But like I said, it's not done yet. I could use some help on it though, maybe from a ghost, or half-ghost's, perspective." Her face lit up.

"Okay, but can we…not tell Pepper about this?" she asked tentatively.

"You read my mind, " I replied and handed her a hammer off of my workbench before we got to work.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Dani POV-

16 days and counting…

Tony and I only stayed up for like an hour longer the night we discovered each other's secrets, and that' only because I practically forced him to bed. No, actually, I _did _force him. It involved a little bit of phasing through the ceiling.

Before that, though, we were able to get a little progress on the Iron Man suit.

"So what powers do you have?" he asked as he tightened a few loose bolts.

"Invisibility, intangibility, flight, paranormal strength, possession, ghost ray, ghost shield. Ooh and duplication and ice powers, but those need a little work," I shrugged sheepishly. Tony blinked at me.

"Okay…wow…what was that blue mist I saw at the press conference?" he asked, still seeming to be a little stunned by my list of powers.

"Ghost sense," I shrugged again, "It lets me know when a ghost is nearby."

"Hmm…" Tony thought for a second, "So tell me more about your 'cousin'?" he said, using air quotes around the word 'cousin.'

"Well, Danny is a level five ghost, which means his power is equal to that of Vlad's, it's just Vlad has 20 years more experience."

"What about you?" Tony asked, "What level is your power?"

"I'm a little over 3.5," I shrugged.

"Why? Shouldn't you be at the same level as Danny?" Tony wondered.

"Well, Danny is older than me, so he has a little more experience, and also, for most of the time after I was created, I was melting and not really focusing on enhancing my powers," I replied, with a smirk.

"Okay, carry on," Tony nodded at me, resting his hand on his face like that statue of the Thinker. I rolled my eyes and continued.

"Umm…okay, well, the only people who know Danny's secret, outside of the Ghost Zone, of course, are his best friends Tucker, and Sam and his sister Jazz," I told him.

"Yes, I know about Tucker, he hacked my security system," Tony said, almost with a pout, causing me to laugh out loud.

"Yeah, he does that," I grinned, "That's what he's the tech geek. Danny is much more…clueless." I said, unable to hide the smile that pulled at the corners of my mouth.

"What's so funny?" Tony asked, immediately catching onto my amusement.

"Well, let's just say that everyone knows that Danny is in love with Sam, that is, everyone _except _Danny and Sam," I smiled.

I transformed, and Tony, not used to seeing me transform, actually jumped a little (even if he would never admit it) and I floated up and leisurely lounged in the air like a comfortable chair.

Tony shook his head and turned to face his work.

"You said you had run-ins with DALV weapons?" Tony asked, almost concerned.

"Yeah, what do you think DALV is spelled backwards," I scoffed. Tony took a second to think about this, then he shook his head.

"So what about Vlad, what do I need to know about him?" Tony asked without looking up.

"Vlad is…well, he has a way of convincing you that he is on your side. But, when that doesn't work, he does have…more effective ways of persuasion," I told him.

Tony looked up at me. "You think he will try and overshadow me?" he said more like a statement rather than a question. I nodded slightly.

"Let's just say, he definitely didn't make his millions through hard work," I said, bitterness lacing my voice, "And he has no sense of boundaries, he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, no matter who is hurt in the process," I told Tony, floating back down to the floor.

"I'm sorry," Tony said, so quietly that I almost believed that I had imagined him saying anything at all.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You didn't deserve to be treated the way he treated you. I just hope I'll be able to make it right," Tony told me. I smiled, giving him another hug.

"You already have," I replied, now it was his turn to be confused.

"By taking me in and actually caring about me, and then by offering to protect me, you are already a better person and dad than Vlad ever was for me. Being here with you and Pepper has been the best time of my life," I told him, honestly.

Tony seemed like he didn't know what to say, and I wasn't surprised. He had grown up without a loving father too, so it was harder for him to express emotions. I broke the hug, not wanting to make him anymore uncomfortable.

He smiled at me as I sat down in a chair, returning to my human form, and he picked up another tool to work on the suit. This tool, I realized, was darker tan the others. It took me a second to realize what that meant.

This tool was made of iron.

I knocked the wrench out of his hand before it touched the active ectoplasm on the suit.

Tony looked at me, a mixture of emotions present on his face.

"Iron doesn't react well with ectoplasm," I told him, "If you had touched that wrench to the suit, we very well could have had a dangerous explosion."

"Oh, okay, thanks," he replied, looking for another wrench. I handed him a stainless steel one.

"Here," I gave the wrench to him, "Stainless steel works the best, and it doesn't react with ectoplasm."

"Thanks," He said with a yawn. It occurred to me, that while he has been taking all this time to dig into my life, he probably hasn't gotten very much sleep.

"Tony," I said, "You need to go to bed."

"I'm fine," he said, yawning, again.

"No you're not," I argued, "Go to bed, the suit will be here tomorrow."

"But we only have—" he started to protest, but I cut him off.

"16 more days. I know. But you need to sleep, you're no good to either of us if you die of exhaustion," I said, with a playful smirk, even though I was completely serious.

"No, I'm fine. But you should go to bed," he told me.

I shook my head. "I didn't want to have to do this Tony. But…you've left me no other choice." I changed into my ghost form, a devious smile lighting up my face.

"Oh, no," He shook his head, waving his wrench at me. I took off, picking him up with my paranormal strength, and phasing through the ceiling. Honestly, the look on his face was priceless. You'd have thought he had never flown through a wall, and from what Jarvis had shown me on the computer, he definitely had. I stopped flying right outside of his bedroom door.

"Don't do that again," he ordered, looking a little green.

I giggled, "Go to bed, Tony."

"Fine," he told me, before going into his room. I closed the door behind him and turned towards my own room.

"Jarvis, make sure he doesn't go back down until after he's had a full night's sleep," I told him.

"Yes, miss Dani," he replied. I arrived at my bedroom. Falling onto my bed, where Ghost was already spread out. I changed back to my human form and was asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.


	20. Chapter 20

**For all of you that have been wondering what is up with me, I'm fine, just to let you know I've just been hit with a ton of school work, allergies, and a major case of writer's block. Not to mention, we've been busy. But I'm back now. Just to let you know, I'm not sure when my next update will be so…yeah. But for now, enjoy this chapter.**

Chapter 20:

12 days and counting…

Dani POV-

Tony and I had gotten a lot of progress done on the suit and were only a day or two away from applying the finishing touches.

"So tell me again why a ghost proof suit is necessary?" Pepper asked as all three of us hung out in the lab. She still doesn't know about me (but she does know that I know about Tony, something that she was very happy about) and she still doesn't really believe in ghosts, but Tony and I are slowly breaking her down.

"Because, recently there have been ghosts in the city, especially one ghost girl…" Tony said, giving me a slight grin. I smirked back, thankfully, Pepper didn't catch this because I was behind her.

"That, and, Amity Park is one of the most haunted cities in the country, and I'm afraid that Vlad might manipulate ghosts to attack us," I said, pretending to be afraid. It was easier than I thought, because although I'm still afraid of Vlad coming here, with Tony and the Iron Man suit on my side, I was feeling way more confident.

It worked. Pepper looked at me with pity and concern about my 'parental' situation.

"Fine," she surrendered, "But how would Vlad be able to manipulate the ghosts anyway, I mean, they are ghosts?" she asked.

"Because he can give them what they want, access to a ghost portal, more specifically the Fenton portal," I lied smoothly. Ghosts don't need access to the Fenton portal because it is almost always open because of his dad, and they constantly come through.

"Speaking of," I asked Tony, "Could you establish a video link between my computer and Danny's?"

"Okay," Tony shrugged at the same time Pepper asked "Why?"

"Because," Danny has to deal with Vlad on a daily basis, maybe he knows what Vlad is planning when he comes here."

I handed my laptop over to Tony who tinkered with it for a few seconds before handing it back.

"Here you go. When you want to establish a link, just press the 'Enter' key," he told me.

"Kay thanks," I replied before heading upstairs to my room.

I flipped the switch of my bedroom to see ghost on his back, paws in the air, on my bed. I laughed as his foot twitched when he was dreaming. I set my laptop on my desk, pressing the 'Enter' key. Immediately, the screen opened up to a view of Danny's bedroom where Danny, Tucker, and Sam were currently arguing about something. Behind me, Ghost woke up to the sound of their voices and laid down at the end of the bed where he had a view of the screen.

"Dude! The pizza came right for my face!" Tucker exclaimed.

"I know, I'm so sick of fighting off my dinner. When is my mom going to realize that she can't cook?" Danny asked, exasperated.

"You two know this wouldn't happen if you just became ultra-recyclo vegetarians like me, even you're mom can't mess up a salad," Sam smirked.

"You know what Sam—!" Tucker yelled, but I decided that this was a good time to make my presence known.

"As much as I hate to interrupt—" I started as that was all it took to get all three pairs of eyes trained on me.

"Dani!" they all exclaimed at the same time, and gathered to where they could all see the screen.

"How are you?" Danny asked me.

"You know, livin' large, kicking butt and taking names," I replied.

"Well, that much I could guess with you having been adopted by Tony Stark," Danny rolled his eyes.

"Is that your room?" Sam asked.

"Yep," I replied with a smile, holding up the laptop so that they could see the room better.

"Nice," Sam nodded in approval.

"He got you a dog!" Danny asked, outraged (probably because he was never able to have a dog).

"Yep," I replied again, stroking Ghost's ears, "His name is Ghost." The three of them laughed.

"Enough about that," Tucker interjected, "What kind of cool tech stuff does Tony Stark have?"

"Hmm…" I pretended to think, a smirk on my face, "Jarvis?" I asked to the artificial intelligence unit.

"Yes, Miss Dani," he replied.

"Can you draw me a warm bath and pick out my clothes for tomorrow, I'm thinking something with my neon blue skinny jeans," I requested.

"Right away, Miss Dani," he replied.

On the screen, Tucker's jaw had dropped. "Is that an artificial intelligence unit?" he asked in awe.

I nodded. Tucker opened his mouth like he wanted to ask more but Danny cut him off.

"What's up Dani?" he asked me, concerned.

"I just wanted to know if you guys had turned up anything about what Vlad might be planning?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and then I remembered that he did not know that Vlad was coming here in less than 12 days.

"He made an appointment to meet with Tony on the 29th," I replied. Danny's eyes widened.

"I hadn't noticed him planning anything the last time I checked. What about you Tuck, last time you swept his computer, did you notice anything?" Danny wondered.

"Nothing," Tucker shook his head, "Sorry guys, but whatever he intends to do, he has been keeping it completely secret."

"That's what I was worried about," I muttered.

"I'll keep a closer eye on him until then," Danny told me.

"Okay, thanks," I sighed because I had been hoping that they had a little bit more information.

"Are you worried about Tony?" Danny guessed.

"A little," I told them, "But Vlad is really after me, he is just using Tony as an excuse to come here." Danny nodded, he looked like he wanted to tell me that Tony could still be in danger, but at the same time, he looked like he didn't want me to be anymore worried about Vlad's arrival.

"Does Tony know—" Danny started but was cut off by another voice.

"Tucker! Sam!" Danny's mom called, "It's time to go home!"

"We've got to go," Danny said, "Talk to you later, and don't worry about Vlad. We'll figure out something."

"Okay, bye," I told him before we both ended the connection.

I sighed loudly, slumping into my seat.

"Your bath is ready, Miss Dani," Jarvis told me.

"Thanks Jarvis, I need one," I got out of my chair and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind me and sinking into the warm water of the tub.

Tony POV-

11 days and counting…

After Dani left for school that morning with Pepper, I went into her room and logged onto her computer.

'_I don't know why I haven't done this sooner?' _I thought as I opened a link to the Fenton kid's computer.

The screen opened to a blue bedroom, with Danny getting ready for school.

"Danny," I called, but he couldn't hear me over the stereo playing on his desk. I recognized the song, it was one that Danielle also liked: Heavy by Collective Soul. I called his name a couple more times before finally getting irritated.

"Phantom," I said. That got his attention.

The stereo went off immediately, and he looked around for the source of his name, before finally seeing me on the screen. I could tell he was already on the defensive (I guess Dani hadn't told him) but he seemed a little more confused when he saw me.

"Tony Stark?" he asked with suspicion.

"Yep," I replied.

"I take it Danielle…told you?" he asked.

"Well, more like I found out myself, but she certainly confirmed my suspicions. Anyway, I have something that I would like to talk to you about," I told him.

He looked at me questionably, when his bedroom door suddenly burst open. "Danny would you hurry up, we're going to be late and—" a girl with orange hair who I'm assuming is his sister, said before seeing me on the screen.

"Oh my gosh! Tony Stark?" she beamed, "You are my idol. Your work with the arc reactor as a source of energy is amazing. And the fact that you graduated from MIT at only 15 is inspirational to me!"

"Not now, Jazz," Danny glared at her (I think his eyes turned green for a second), "And don't you ever knock?"

She glared back at him, before finally giving up, "Fine, I'll meet you at school." She waved at me before exiting the room.

"Sorry about that, now what did you want to talk about?" Danny asked, still slightly suspicious.

"Danielle, obviously. She's in danger from Vlad. Now, I can protect her to a point, but you know Vlad a lot better than I do and, as much as I hate to say it, you have a lot more experience fighting ghosts than I do," I told him.

"So what are you saying?" Danny wondered.

I smirked, "Like I said, I have a proposition for you."


	21. Chapter 21

**I will be keeping, whatever "proposition" Tony had for Danny, from you readers, just to let you know. Not to be cruel or anything, I just want you to be as surprised as Danielle when whatever it was is finally revealed. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.**

Chapter 21:

Dani POV-

"Wait what?!" Issa whisper yelled to me in disbelief, "Tony Stark is Iron Man!?"

"Yes, shh…keep your voice down," I hissed back at her giving her a glare, while at the same time glancing around to make sure that the room was completely empty. I thought I had heard a nearly inaudible shoe squeak on the vinyl floors, but, checking around the corner, I realized that I must just be paranoid. I had made sure that the locker room was deserted before I told her, but now I was checking again just as an added precaution. Thankfully, once again, there was no one in the locker room with us.

"Sorry, okay, it's just, that's big news," she beamed. I rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm.

"Duh. And now we're making a new ghost proof suit from reverse engineering the Fenton ectopistol," I grinned.

"That's awesome Dani," she smiled back at me, "Now you don't even have to worry about Vlad."

I shrugged a little, "Well, I still have to worry about him, you know how he is. Even if the suit is ghost proof, Tony, and Pepper for that matter, have to meet with him at Stark Industries without the suit."

"Come on," she rolled her eyes, "Yeah, maybe you should worry about Pepper, a little, but, really? I think that Tony is perfectly capable of handling himself."

"Obviously, but he's never faced a ghost before. Vlad could overshadow him or something…" I told her.

"And then what? Make Tony give him money? It's not like he needs it, and it's not like he could get Tony to give him Stark Industries or something because that involves going through lawyers and stuff. Don't worry Dani, Tony'll be fine," she assured me.

"I guess you're right," I sighed, then I saw the plastic clock hanging over the locker room door, "Come on, we're going to be late."

"Will you give me a ride?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope," I transformed into my ghost form, "You're going to have to run for it," I said with a smirk before phasing through the ceiling.

"Ugh! I hate you!" She yelled after me, and I laughed, flying to bathroom closest to my next class.

Little did either of them know that Scarlett had been crouched in the door frame of the outside entrance to the locker room the whole time.

Scarlett POV-

Scarlett smiled to her self, with a self assured smile on her lips. She had only heard bits and pieces of the conversation, but it was enough, enough to ruin Dani's school experience for life and to assure that nobody would ever show her up again.

'_Ever since her new daddy picked her up from school, she has almost been more popular than me! And it's like she doesn't even _want _to be popular! Now that I have this, she'll get bumped off of the social ladder back to loserville where she belongs. Maybe she'll even cry,' _Scarlett smirked to herself, smearing a little lip-gloss on her lips while admiring herself in the broken locker room mirror, '_I always knew that she was a weird freak, but now, I have proof.' _

She picked up her bag from the floor, looping it over her shoulder before exiting the bathroom. She already had a plan forming in her head about how to embarrass Danielle and her little bitch of a friend too…what was her name? Oh, who cared, like it mattered, after today, Scarlett was sure that they would never want to show their faces again.

Scarlett left to her next class. English.

She was late of course, but the teacher had gotten used to this from her, so she let it slide as Scarlett took a seat in the back next to one of her satellite friends, Lisa. She gave Lisa an evil smile, which Lisa returned, letting Scarlett know that she was ready for any plan Scarlett was about to pull.

The teacher rambled on about Shakespeare or Homer or something, not that it mattered to Scarlett, one of them was dead and the other was a Simpsons character…right?

Finally, the bell rang, and the class filled out. Scarlett's next class was lunch, the same lunch as Danielle.

"So what's the plan?" Lisa asked, her voice has always been a little nasally.

'_I swear I wouldn't even tolerate her if she didn't worship me,' _Scarlett thought, fighting to hide her distaste.

"Let's just say, I overheard something that Danielle said, and I'm going to make her life miserable at lunch," she smirked.

"Ooh, evil, I'll get the microphone ready on the stage," Lisa squeaked.

"Yeah, whatever," Scarlett replied, no longer paying attention to her so-called friend.

They entered the lunch room. Scarlett immediately caught sight of Danielle sitting with her pathetic little group of friends. Danielle made eye contact with her, a hint of suspicion in her blue eyes.

'_Perfect,' _Scarlett purred, now the plan can begin.

Dani POV-

"What the hell is she smiling at?" I asked Issa nodding in Scarlett's direction.

"You knows, who cares," she replied, shoving her mouth full of spaghetti.

I shook my head, and turned back to my own food. We went on for the next few minutes, talking about tests and teachers with our three best guy friends, Alec, Zeke, and Jesse. Suddenly, I heard, even before everyone else, microphone interference. A high pitched squeal erupted throughout the cafeteria, causing almost all of us to wince and cover our ears. I looked to the stage.

There, holding the microphone was one of Scarlett's henchmen, Lisa. I rolled my eyes.

'_What are they up to?' _I wondered.

Lisa cleared her throat, "Umm…listen everybody, Scarlett has an announcement to make."

Then, Scarlett took the stage, grabbing the microphone and pushing Lisa out of the way.

"That's right," she sneered in our direction, "Danielle, why don't you stand up."

I arched an eyebrow, crossing my arms before finally standing.

"What do you want, Scarlett?" I yelled over the cafeteria.

"Oh, nothing, I just overheard, a little conversation between you and your loser friend in the locker room today," she sneered again. I gritted my teeth, she was baiting me. Clarissa stood up like she was about to punch her in the face, but I held her back, we weren't about to jump at this yet.

"Yeah, what was that? Eavesdropping on our conversation, I didn't know you cared so much," I smirked, that ruffled the queen's feathers a little.

"All I know, is that I now have the evidence to confirm that you are, and always have been, a freak and a loser," she smiled proudly. I glanced around the cafeteria, all of the faculty, were either too absorbed in their own conversations, or too absorbed in what was going on, to do anything. I sighed and shared a quick look at Issa, who glanced at me with a look of fear in her eyes, I'm sure the same look was in my eyes, but I refused to let it show on my face. If she found out who I am, or even worse, who Tony, is, our lives could be over. I was not about to take that chance. I silently duplicated myself. My invisible duplicate floated over by the stage, ready to take over in case I had to. The duplicate wasn't very stable, but it would have to work.

"Bring it on, Scarlett," I challenged, not allowing my smirk to falter.

She pursed her lips, clearly taken aback by my challenge.

"Fine then, " she started, "Danielle, I know that you…"


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

Dani POV-

"Fine then," Scarlett started, "Danielle, I know that you believe in ghosts," she announced with a smug satisfaction. Nobody spoke; the cafeteria was completely silent as everyone tried to figure out how to react to this incredibly insignificant news.

"Is that it?" I asked her, pretending to be almost disappointed, when, in actuality I was relieved that she is actually as stupid as she looks. Everyone laughed at my reaction, but gave me a few strange looks. I shrugged, for one thing, a lot of…normal people believe in ghosts, and secondly, I could care less what they think.

"Well," Scarlett huffed, "Aren't you going to deny it? I mean, that is soo stupid. Ghosts aren't real."

"Haven't you seen the news? There have been ghost attacks around the city lately, also there is no scientific evidence to prove or _disprove _the existence of ghosts" Zeke spoke up, standing up behind me. I smiled at him, he smiled back, his dark green eyes glinting in amusement. It's funny that, even though he doesn't know my secret, he is still willing to protect and stand up for me. Several other people in the cafeteria chimed in with various forms of agreement, although, they weren't nearly as vocal (probably fearing that they would become the object of Scarlett's harassment).

"In fact," I said, fighting to hide the smirk on my face, "There's one _right _behind you."

She twitched slightly, but easily pretended to be unfazed as she glared at me.

"I'm not falling for that," she sneered. That had been what I was expecting, but remembering that I had my invisible duplicate on the stage behind her, I used it to pick up a prop, which just so happened to be a plastic hammer.

"Look!" I exclaimed with false fear. The cafeteria gasped and Scarlett turned around to see the hammer floating over he head. She screamed and bolted off of the stage. The other people in the cafeteria were torn between laughter and panic, as I invisibly dropped the hammer with a light thud. My weakened duplicate came rushing back to me and I practically collapsed at the amount of power it had taken to sustain even a weak duplicate for a few minutes.

'_Man, I _really _need some practice,' _I thought. Zeke and Issa immediately caught me before I completely toppled over, giving me looks of concern.

"I'm okay," I assured them, standing back up, my footing a little bit more stable on the floor. Issa and our other friends at the table nodded and went back to eating, but Zeke still looked a little concerned.

"Chill Zeke, I'm fine," I told him, sitting back at the table, as Issa rolled her eyes (why, I have no idea).

The rest of the day went easily, if it's possible, _I _somehow got even more unneeded popularity because the student body was somehow convinced that I had rigged the hammer to float over her head (which, in a way I had, but not the way they were thinking). Oddly, it was more attention than I had gotten since I became the adoptive daughter of Tony Stark. Honestly, I didn't like being the center of attention, I was so happy when it was finally time to go home.

I waited outside, Zeke had insisted on waiting with Issa and I just in case I fell again. Finally, Happy pulled up in the limo and Pepper got out of the back to let Issa and I in.

"Hey Dani," she smiled at us, "Who is this?" she asked, gesturing towards Zeke.

"Oh right, Pepper, this is Zeke, Zeke, this is Pepper," I introduced them.

Pepper smiled and extended her hand for him to shake, she seemed to be thinking about something.

"Zeke, would you like to come to Tony's house with us for dinner?" she asked, "That is if it's okay with your parents?" I almost sighed out load, it's not that it wouldn't be cool to have Zeke over for dinner, but I was going to show Issa the lab and now that would have to wait until after he left.

"My mom is working until seven, so it should be okay," he replied. Then Issa, Zeke and I piled into the back of the limo while Pepper too the passenger seat.

"This is cool," Zeke marveled at the inside of the limo, pressing random buttons on the ceiling.

"Yeah it is," Issa replied in a 'well duh' voice.

"So this is what it's like being rich…" he mused out load, ignoring Issa's comment. Zeke is the youngest of three, all of which rely on the income of his single mom and oldest sister. His dad died a few years after he was born, so his family has basically been living paycheck to paycheck since then. I smiled at his reaction. That is how I had felt after I had gotten adopted. Sometimes, it was almost unreal remembering how much my life had changed since then.

As we pulled up to the mansion, we all got out, and Zeke's eyes widened so large, I thought that they were about to pop out of his head.

"This is where you _live_?" he asked.

"Yeah, now. Now come on," I nudged him, motioning for him to follow us inside. Issa, is already too comfortable in our house, she ran in, even before me, and made a beeline for the kitchen, bugging Jarvis to make her a sundae. Ghost ran up to us. He sniffed Zeke for a second before eagerly licking his hand.

Zeke laughed, scratching Ghost on the top of his head.

"What's his name?" he asked me.

"Ghost," I replied. He gave me a weird look.

"Is that just a coincidence or is it some kind of inside joke?" he wondered, reminding me about Scarlett's announcement earlier today.

"Both," I said with a sly grin, before walking into the kitchen after Issa.

"Hey Dani, do you want to come down to the la—library," Tony covered, seeing Zeke next to me at the barstools in the kitchen.

"Hey Tony, this is my friend Zeke, Zeke, Tony," I introduced them.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Tony asked, looking at Zeke a little suspiciously.

"What?! No, we're just friends!" we both exclaimed in unison, and I blushed a little…or a lot. Tony scoffed and walked over to the other side of the room where Issa was raiding the pantry.

I distinctly heard, "clueless as…cousin" and "denial" then they both chuckled about something.

"Tony did you need my help with something?" I asked.

"No, that's okay, you just go hang out with your friends," he said with a amused grin.

"Come on guys," I rolled my eyes, hopping off my barstool and walking down the hall to my bedroom.

**Hey guys, I know it's kind of a filler chapter, but I really wanted to introduce Zeke (even though he really won't play a big part until the sequel…that's right, after this one, I decided to make a sequel), and have Scarlett get embarrassed by Dani, but who knows, now Dani is even more popular and Scarlett might be a little more suspicious. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it.**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

5 days, and counting…

Dani POV-

I had just gotten home from school. Today was one of those days that Issa couldn't come over because of her jazz practice after school, which was fine with me. I have been even more spacey and on edge since we now only have until Friday afternoon until Vlad gets here, thankfully, we have finished the suit, but we still barely have a plan.

I was sprawled out on my bed, staring at a few posters I had recently posted on the ceiling, correction, posters that _Issa _had posted on the ceiling because apparently I need to "be normal for once." How could I possibly be normal? Especially at a time like this.

I groaned and rolled over, slamming my face into my pillows. I vaguely heard the doorbell ring. I took no notice of it, Pepper occasionally rings the doorbell when she brings over clients…I guess to make sure that Tony is…decent? After a few seconds, I heard a knock on my own bedroom door.

"Hey Dani, could you come out here?" Pepper asked sweetly from the other side.

"Okay," I called back to her.

'_Why does she want me?' _I wondered as I jumped out of bed. I quickly did a little inspection of myself in the mirror (don't want to embarrass myself in front of one of their clients). After fixing a stray hair, I opened the door and walked out into the living room with Ghost following behind me at a leisurely pace.

Before I rounded the corner, I thought I heard a familiar voice. Quickening my pace, I got to where I could see the living room. I was right.

"Danny?" I asked tentatively in his direction. He immediately looked up at me and grinned.

"Hey Dani," he smirked at me with a goofy smile on his face just in time to get tackled by Ghost. The pup placed his large paws on Danny, making him stumble backwards onto the couch, laughing as Ghost licked his face. I ran over giggling as I tried to take the dog off of him.

"Ghost, stop, heel," I ordered half-heartedly. We finally managed to remove the dog from him, which was actually a difficult task through our fits of laughter.

Danny stood up, and I gave him a hug, which he returned.

"His name is Ghost?" he asked with amusement.

"Yep," I grinned and we both laughed.

"So how are you?" he asked me with concern.

"Better, now," I answered honestly.

"Jeez Tucker, I'm a girl and you brought more crap than I did," I heard another voice complain. I looked up to see Sam, Tucker and Happy coming in the front door.

I beamed, breaking the hug and running up to hug them too.

"Hey Danielle," they greeted me.

Finally, Tony decided to make his grand entrance, a drink in his hand.

"Surprise," he smirked at me, "Do I get a hug?" he pretended to be offended.

"Okay," I replied and gave him a hug too. I looked back at the trio from Amity Park and smiled. Tucker looked like his eyes were about to fall out and roll on the floor as he stared at Tony. Tony seemed to notice too.

"So you must be the one that hacked my system," Tony said, faking a scowl as he walked closer to Tucker until he was standing right in front of him. Tucker looked horrified like he wanted to shrivel into dust. Danny, Sam, and I tried to contain our laughter, even the corners of Pepper's mouth curled up in amusement.

"I..I...I…" Tucker struggled to find the right words. Tony finally grinned at him, I could practically see the relief wash over his face as Tony spoke.

"I'm impressed," Tony told him, "You're 18 call me for a job."

Tucker was speechless, "I…I…thank you."

Tony and I rolled our eyes at the same time.

"Yeah, nice surprise Tony," Pepper spoke up, "I didn't know that three teenagers would be staying with you until you asked me to go with Happy to pick them up from the airport," she glared at Tony playfully.

"Would have been four, but Jazz had a scheduled college visit to Yale, but _trust_ me, she wanted to be here," Danny said.

"How did your parents allow you to come here anyway?" I asked.

"They think that we have been 'personally selected' to attend an 'engineering camp' hosted by Tony," Sam told me.

"Wait, why are you three here?" Pepper asked.

"Right," Tony said, clasping his hands together, changing the subject, "Let's get to the 'engineering' part. Happy will you take their bags to the guest rooms. Come on guys," he motioned for them to follow, "Oh, Pepper, could you handle the rest of my meetings for the day," he said with a 'pretty-please-with-cherries-on-top' smile. She sighed.

"Of course Tony," she replied as she exited the house to go back to Stark Industries.

When the door closed, Tony walked us toward the lab.

"Wow, they just got here and you are already showing them the lab. You had to find out my secret before I was allowed in there," I teased.

"That didn't stop you," Tony remarked back as he punched in the code to enter the lab.

I shrugged and Danny laughed, "How are you doing in school Dani?"

Tony laughed, "A hell of a lot better than you, and her classes are harder."

"No shit, I'm in 6th grade and I'm taking calculus," I laughed. The tree teenagers gawked at me.

"Wait, you're Danny's clone where did you get so smart?" Tucker asked.

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed.

"Sorry Dude, but you know it's true," Tucker shrugged.

"Honestly, I have no idea where I got so smart, but it might have had something to do with those months I spent with clockwork," I told them. Danny seemed thoughtful.

"Oh, hey Danny, you don't happen to have a portable Fenton Thermos release system do you? I've kind of had the box ghost trapped for several weeks," I grinned.

"That explains why I've actually been able to get some sleep lately. And yeah, my parents just invented one, it's upstairs in my bag, I managed to swipe it before we came here," Danny told me.

"Awesome," I replied.

We finally came down to the last door before the lab.

"Here we are at the Iron Man cave, it's like the Bat cave but better," Tony announced, before opening the door.

"I have died and gone to geek heaven," Tucker gawked entering the lab, making all of us laugh.


	24. Chapter 24

**Okay, listen up. This will be my last author's note, probably for a while (apparently they are annoying), but some things had to be addressed. Most of you are wonderful fans who have reviewed or favorited or are just silently following this story, and I love you for that, know that this ranting I will be doing does not apply to you. **

**On the other hand, there are some of you that have a problem with me that I would like to be cleared up. It should not be personally offensive to you that I ask for reviews, and I would like to point out that I am not the only one who does it. And also, I don't ask for them because I have some sort of self esteem problem and need to be complimented at all times, I do it because I actually enjoy writing and I generally like feedback on **_**my writing **_**NOT on my author's notes. And as far as my new stories, yeah I posted them and you will notice that I mentioned that they are not a high priority and will not be updated as often, that just happened to be where the inspiration struck me. And, okay, it's been six days, big deal. I have other stories that have been neglected way longer than that, and at this moment, I am actually on Thanksgiving break and would like some time to relax. Also, you do not need to insult my writing (but I will not cry should you choose to do so) however considering you've made it this far in this story, my writing cannot be as poor as you make it out to be. Just so you know, this is not typical of me to respond like this because I generally am indifferent to criticism (you will notice that I will still not remove your review despite how much it has offended me). Also, I still respect you as a reader, and your opinions have been considered.**

**Anyway, to all of my amazing fans out there, here is a new chapter, I hope you enjoy it, but do not feel the need to review if you did like it, I wouldn't want you to feel compelled to complement me.**

Chapter 24:

Tony POV-

"Well, there are some things that I did not mention about myself during our video chat," I grinned as the kids wandered in and took in the lab. Dani rolled her eyes at them and took what has become her usual chair in the lab.

"What?" Danny asked, casting a confused look over to Danielle and then looking back to be.

"Danielle hit the switch," I motioned for her to hit the switch that opens the wall of Iron Man suits. She grumbled about having to get up from her seat, playfully, before slamming her fist on the switch with a smirk on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

The wall opened up, and, if it's possible for that kid Tucker's eyes to get any wider, they did, but so did the eyes of Danny and Sam.

"Are you telling me that…you're Iron Man?" Danny asked, probably just to make sure that he was not hallucinating as the three of them walked over to the wall. Tucker, was once again speechless and ran his fingers over my classic Iron Man suit.

"Damn right, I am," I grinned in reply.

"I think I have to thank you," Sam said, "These past ten minutes have been the quietest Tucker has been since we have known him."

"Yeah, sometimes we can't get him to shut up," Danny added, making Dani laugh. Tucker, was still entranced by the suits, and was oblivious to the fact that his friends were laughing at him.

"Oh, and this is the newest one," I told them, flipping another switch and revealing the neon green and silver suit that hung by itself on a separate wall.

At this point, Dani decided to get out of her chair.

"We reverse engineered the ecto-gun and made this suit so Tony could help us fight Vlad," she beamed proudly.

"Nice," Danny grinned in approval, "Oh, that reminds me, I brought some more weapons from my parent's lab." Sam took of her purple spider-shaped backpack and opened it up, passing it to Danny.

"Let's see," I brought another wrist ray, another ecto-pistol, another Fenton thermos, Fenton fisher, Fenton lipstick, Fenton phones, Fenton grappler, oh, and a specter deflector."

"How did you kids even get this through airport security?" I wondered out loud. They didn't provide an answer, but Danny laughed.

"So what does all of this stuff do?" I asked him.

"Well, you already know the wrist rays, ecto-pistol, and the thermos…"Danny started.

"Wait, no, what is the wrist ray?" I asked.

"Oh…you know those bracelets I gave to Pepper and Issa…" Dani grinned sheepishly.

"Really Danielle?" I shook my head, knowing that she hadn't told Pepper about the weapon on her wrist at all.

"Anyway," Danny continued, "As for everything else, um…the Fenton fisher, it's like a fishing pole for ghosts, the Fenton lipstick is actually a laser disguised as a lipstick. The Fenton phones, filter out ghost noise and allow us to communicate, the Fenton Grappler shoots a ghost proof net, and a couple specter deflectors…that probably what will be most useful to you."

"And why is that?" I wanted to know.

"Because, you cannot be overshadowed if you are wearing it, even if you are not in the Iron Man suit," Danny told me.

"It's so you and Pepper can wear it during the meeting," Danielle interjected. I decided that it was going to be tough to get Pepper to wear the tacky belt, but it made sense at least.

"Can I copy some of that into the suit?" I wondered.

"Definitely," Danny replied, handing me the Fenton phones, Fenton grappler, and the specter deflectors.

"So, as much as I don't want to admit this, I called you guys here, because apparently three teenagers have more experience fighting, at least in this area, than I do," I sighed, "So what can you tell me about fighting Vlad or do you guys have some kind of plan?"

"Vlad is my arch enemy…he will do whatever it takes to win. He once overshadowed everybody in Amity Park to vote for him so that he could become mayor and make our lives miserable. Ever since we both found out who each other were we have been kind of at a draw because if one of us is revealed the other would be too. And he has been know to duplicate himself and defeat his duplicate to make himself look good. His only weakness is to have his image damaged," Danny told me.

"Okay, that makes sense, it's kind of a billionaire thing. But what's the plan?" I asked.

"Well, obviously, you turn down his business offer. And I'd be willing to bet that he will invite, you Dani and Pepper to dinner afterwards," Sam continued.

"You think I should turn down his invite to dinner?" I guessed.

"No," Danny shook his head, surprising me a little.

"What?!" Danielle squeaked.

"You should go to dinner, yeah it'll suck for you, but at least you'll be in a public place. If Tony declines, that would give Vlad motive to go after you while he is still at work," Danny reasoned with her.

"Plus, think of it like this, you can be confident because you will have already had the leg up. Vlad has no idea that we are here," Sam added.

"Okay, yeah, but all of us know that this will inevitably end in a fight. When Vlad tries to kidnap Dani after dinner, what then?" I asked.

"She'll tell us what is going on, via Fenton phones, and then we go and kick his butt," Tucker said, finally coming out of his shock and into the conversation.

"And, as you already established, that lands us in a draw," I sighed.

"Not necessarily…" Danny grinned.

"What do you have in mind?" Dani asked.

"We have someone on our side with more influence than Vlad," he looked from her to me, "Once Vlad realizes that we have reached a draw, he won't surrender, but he will leave and plot a way to get you another time. The next morning, you hold a press conference, and destroy his reputation."

"Sounds like a plan," I nodded.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

The meeting is tomorrow…

Dani POV-

I got dressed for school as slowly as I could, hoping that Tony, and more importantly, Pepper, would change their minds about me having to attend school these next to days. So far, every ounce of begging I had poured into my argument wasn't working.

Unfortunately, in my absentminded anxiety, I had gotten myself completely ready for school much more quickly than I had hoped.

I trudged down the hallway. Pepper stood by the front door, arms crossed, and giving me a look of slight irritation for my procrastination about the school day. Tucker and Tony sat on the couch, being the only other ones up at this hour (a fact that Tony did not look too happy about). I sighed internally, wishing that I could be sleeping too.

"Do I really have to go," I whined, attempting the puppy dog eye trick one last time.

"Yes," they all said in unison. I glared at Tucker as if to say, "Thanks soo much for backing me up," he seemed ignorant of my glare and continued to fiddle with something on his PDA.

"I don't see what the big deal is, Vlad is only flying in today, none of us even have to see him yet," Pepper stated. Of course, we were still keeping up the charade around her so I couldn't disclose my fears that he would try something while I was at school.

I groaned and grabbed my backpack off of the countertop, walking towards the door. Pepper walked outside, and probably already got into the car. About half way to the door, I stubbornly planted my feet and refused to budge. Every time Tucker or Tony attempted to push me or pick me up from my spot, I simply turned intangible. Tony sighed in exasperation, just seconds away from cracking, I could feel it, that is, until Tucker opened his big mouth.

"Danielle," he sighed, "Vlad knows everything that goes on in our lives. I'm sure he has been keeping tabs on your grades and absences, so if you miss today, it will tip him off that something might be up, and it could ruin the plan."

I glared at him again, not wanting to obey, but knowing that he was right.

"Fine," I surrendered reluctantly after a few seconds, stomping out of the house and to the car, slamming the front door behind me.

…

[Lunch time]

I drummed my fingers lightly on the faux wood table, still unable to get over my anxiety from earlier in the day. My ghost sense had been going off at random points all day, but I had been warned by both Danny and Tony to ignore it, just in case it was some kind of trap. Even knowing this, it still did not help my anxiety at all. The only reassurance I got, was that Danny is sitting in Tony's house right now, fighting the same urge I have to go suck whatever ghost it was into a Fenton thermos.

Zeke shot me several concerned looks but, for whatever reason, decided it best not to ask what was wrong. I was grateful to him for not questioning me. Issa, on the other hand, did not posses the same tact that he has.

After the third time I accidentally kicked her leg while fidgeting in my seat, she slammed the palms of her hands on the table and demanded to know what was up. I raised an eyebrow at her. It took a few seconds for her to recognize what I meant as a look of realization appeared on her face, and she immediately changed the subject.

"So, am I coming home with you today?" she asked, relaxing back into her seat.

"So your not practicing for your dance recital anymore?" I wondered.

"Nope," she shook her head, "The recital was last night, thank God. I'm glad I don't have to worry about it anymore. So was that a yes?"

"Yeah, sounds good. You should meet my cousin anyway," I nodded, nonchalantly, trying to play it off like I was fine. Of course, the only two who bought it were Alec and Jesse, and Alec was so wrapped up in his Pokémon game on his old Gameboy, that I wouldn't be surprised if he believed me if I said that I decided to take a job training polka dot elephants.

"So is your cousin cute?" Issa asked suddenly, and I practically choked on my mystery meat.

"Um…I'm not sure I can really answer that, considering he's my cousin, but he looks a lot like me," I shrugged. Issa pondered this for a moment, and Zeke looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself and turned back to the untouched slop on his plate. I briefly wondered what he might have been about to say, and debated on asking him, but I soon realized that it probably wasn't worth it anyway and continued eating.

…

We rode home together and Pepper kept giving me concerned looks. I felt bad for keeping her out of the loop, but knowing her, she would worry _way _too much if she knew what was going on, so instead, I gave her a fake reassuring smile. She reluctantly accepted it, mostly because she didn't have much choice, probably figuring that since we haven't told her what has been going on yet, we probably won't.

Issa and I walked into the house and saw that Tony, Sam, Tucker, and Danny were all standing around the hardly-used dining room table studying something, which I figured was probably schematics or something. Whatever was on the paper was abruptly shoved under the table as soon as the front door open, another precaution to keep Pepper as out of the loop as possible.

"Hey guys," I grinned walking up to the table, "This is Issa. Issa this is Tucker, Sam and Danny."

They all lifted a hand to halfheartedly wave to her as they were each introduced.

Issa nodded, taking in there faces and turned to Danny.

"Wow, Danielle was right. You two really do look alike."


	26. Chapter 26

**Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. But here you go. **

Chapter 26:

Later that same night…

Dani POV-

"Aww…how cute," Issa grinned sarcastically as we went down into the lab. The reason? Ghost was asleep on Tony's lap in front of the computer. Annoyed, Tony woke the dog and pushed him back onto the floor where Ghost immediately went into the corner and curled up.

A little while later, I got bored. So, I decided to toss a ball of ectoplasm between my hands. I formed one, about the size of a tennis-ball and began to play with it.

"Would you stop doing that! You're making me anxious," Sam exclaimed in exasperation after a few minutes. From across the room, I saw Danny grin.

"Hey Dani!" he called, "Toss it over here." I made a point of smirking at Sam before I tossed it to Danny, who caught it and tossed it back. Our little game of catch soon became a game of keep away, as Sam picked up a tennis racket (yes, for some reason there was a tennis racket lying on the floor of the lab, I think that they had intended to make it a ghost weapon but never got around to it) and attempted to dissolve the ball with a swing. She missed. I changed into my ghost form to get higher up, and out of range of her swing, and Danny did the same. By this point, Issa, Tucker, and Tony were all fixated on what was going on.

Also, by this point, Sam was…pissed, and she was no longer fooling around. She picked up a thermos off of the table and Danny and I froze. Before either one of us even had a chance to change back, Sam sucked Danny into the thermos. With her focus momentarily off of me, I changed back, dropping the full four feet to the floor and landing in a squat. Then, when she turned the focus of the thermos on me, it was too late.

"Sam, let me out," Danny mumbled from inside of the thermos, and I couldn't help but giggle. Sam ignored him and set the thermos on the table, upside-down.

Tony seemed to be having fun because he couldn't stop laughing.

"Does this happen a lot?" he asked between chuckles. Tucker shrugged.

"Yeah, kind of, but usually for different things," he informed Tony.

That's when Pepper came downstairs.

"Okay, who wanted hot chocolate?" she asked.

After she had dished out the steaming cups, she realized that one of us was missing.

"Where's Danny?" she asked.

"He went to bed early," Sam lied, shoving the thermos off of the table and onto the nearby chair, and causing Danny to groan from inside of the thermos.

"What was that?" she asked in regards to the seemingly disembodied groan, looking around the room.

"Nothing," the rest of us exclaimed at once. Pepper let out a deep sigh, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Fine. I'll be upstairs if you need anything else," she told us before going up the stairs and out of the lab.

"Can I come out now?" Danny whined, and after a few moments of wrestling the thermos out of Sam's grasp, Tucker finally pressed the release button.

The next morning, Friday, the 29th…

Tony POV-

This morning, everyone was awake, congregating on the couch when Pepper got there to take Dani, albeit reluctantly, to school again.

"Pepper? What time is his appointment?" I asked so that Tucker could enter all of the information into his PDA.

"He was very specific, he told me he wanted to schedule the meeting at 11:30 this morning," she told me.

"Oh, right!" Danny remembered something, and then pulled out the specter deflector, "Tucker managed to make them a little less tacky when we were in the lab last night, but you guys still need to wear them. Sorry, Issa, I don't have one for you…" Danny apologized handing Pepper and I the, now black leather belts, one, slightly more feminine than the other.

"That's okay," Sam said, "She can have mine," she pulled off a black and purple plaid belt I hadn't realized she was wearing. Danny didn't seem to like this idea, just judging by the look on his face, but, Sam, it seemed, was able to reassure him with only a smile and a slight nod.

"I still don't understand the reason that we have to wear these," Pepper wanted to know, as I put mine on.

"We told you—" Dani started, but Pepper held up a hand, shaking her head.

"Yes, I know, Vlad might use ghosts to overshadow us or something…like that. But I still have a very hard time making sense of that," she told Dani.

"You're just going to have to trust us," Dani told her, using a little of her puppy-dog-eyed charm.

Pepper sighed, "Okay. But we better get going if you don't want to be late for school."

Dani nodded, she and Issa, standing up and following Pepper out the front door with their backpacks slung over their shoulders.

"Knowing Vlad," Sam said. Every time one of these kids mentioned something else about him, it almost seemed hard to believe that they could have faced him enough to know his habits, but they did, "He will have his vulture minions sifting the rest of your stuff at the office during your meeting, so make sure not to leave any…incriminating evidence lying around."

"In other words, don't even bring the Iron Man suit to work, in a briefcase or otherwise," Tucker finished.

"Are you serious?" I asked, slightly confused and slightly ticked off.

"Yeah, sorry. But don't worry, you won't need it during the meeting. He won't try anything, and even if he does, you and Pepper will be fine," Danny said.

"Okay, but what if they come here during the meeting," I asked.

"They won't at least not with the finishing touches I just added to the ghost proof security system," Tucker said, "The only two ghosts going in or out of here will be Danny and Danielle."

I sighed, feeling like they had everything covered, "Alright, let's do this."


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27:

Tony POV-

I groaned, Danny had assured me that Vlad would not be late, which meant that I had to actually be at my office before him to "prevent him to getting extra access to my office without me there". Sure enough, at 11:30 on the dot, Pepper rang up to tell me that Vlad was on his way to my office, and, not ten seconds later, Mr. High-and-mighty himself, strolled through the door.

"Well, hello Mr. Stark, long time no see," he said, extending his hand with a false cordial smile.

I shook his hand, not really wanting to, but not letting my reluctance show on my face. The specter deflector didn't zap him because it was only set to affect his ghost form and other ghosts, but I couldn't help but want to zap the smug smile off of his face.

"Yeah, I have to admit, after the way things ended last time, I didn't expect you to contact me anytime soon," I told him, leaning back in my chair as he took the seat opposite of me.

"Oh that?" he brushed it off, but I managed to catch a glimpse of anger in his features. However he was so good as masking his emotions, had I not been looking for it, I would have missed it completely, "I realize now that I had been completely foolish in my last proposition and now I have a much better idea for you."

"I hope so," I replied, easily mimicking his false sincerity.

He must have remembered that I don't like being handed things because, when he pulled a large leather-bound portfolio out of his briefcase, he set it on the desk and slid it across to me.

I picked the book up, opening it. I skimmed the pages. From what I could tell, this "better idea" was very much based on the last one, I think he might have only changed the wording around. Of course, in this presentation, it appeared to be that I would be the one benefiting, and, if I had been anybody else, I might have been won over by this idea, but, fortunately, I am not. Vlad took my momentary "distraction" to have a conversation with me.

"So, I hear tell, that you have recently adopted a daughter," he broached the subject. I tried to act nonplussed but I couldn't help the slight tension that came to my shoulders at his mention of Danielle.

"Yes, I have," I answered simply, pretending to still be reading the portfolio.

He smiled. His smile had a creepy edge to it. "Children are so wonderful, aren't they?" he asked me, in what I felt was a rhetorical manner considering he kept talking immediately after, "Why, I always wanted children, but I never seemed to…earn the right woman," he said.

I looked up to acknowledge that I was "listening" but then continued to read the file.

"How about I take you, your assistant, and your daughter out to dinner tonight," he told me, _man those kids are good. _

"I don't know Vlad," I said, knowing that he would insist.

"I insist, and I won't take no for an answer," he smiled creepily again.

Suddenly my computer beep. I momentarily set the file down and opened the screen to my laptop.

"I've been having all kinds of security problems lately," I informed him, "So I invested in an even better system that covers everything. Oh…looks like I've got something, I turned the screen to show him the outside of my house where two green birds where trying to force their way in.

"Mr. Stark, living in the most haunted city in the country, I feel I must warn you that those look like ghosts to me," Vlad told me, with false concern.

"Hmm…" I pretended to think for a moment, "My security installer told me that my problem might be paranormal…I, of course, didn't believe him, but I'm glad I allowed him to install the ghost proof security anyway," I laughed, "Let's see what happens when I do this," I clicked the enter key and a green beam shot out at the birds, knocking them out of the sky. I grinned, but I saw, Vlad cringe a little.

"Well, I guess I won't be having those problems anymore," I laughed and Vlad joined in my laugher.

I closed my laptop and set it aside, once again picking up the file and then setting the portfolio back down.

"So do we have a deal," he asked, hopefully, getting over his surprise at seeing my new security system.

"I'm sorry Vlad, I told him, pushing the file across the desk. We just don't have a place for Vladco in Stark Industries. You understand don't you," I added.

He pursed his lips, "Of course Mr. Stark, I understand," he told me, standing up to leave.

"So what do you say about Dinner at the Chart House tonight?" I asked.

"Of course, Mr. Stark, how about six thirty-ish," he asked. I subtly clicked the sensitivity on my belt up a notch, and stood up.

"Six thirty-ish it is," I agreed shaking his hand. I saw him jump a little when my hand touched his.

"Oh, sorry about that, static electricity is a bitch isn't it?" I asked with a laugh.

He laughed too in a fake manner and somewhat forced.

"See you tonight, Mr. Stark," he waved as he walked out of my office.

Vlad POV-

I will admit, I had been taken back by the fact that he accepted my invitation to dinner even after rejecting my proposal. Ah, well, only a minor set back to my original plan.

'_Well,' _I thought '_That security might also hinder my plans for a few hours, but, I will have the advantage because it would appear that Danielle has not told her 'new' father her biggest secret,' _I grinned to myself at this fact.

'_I wonder if she even knows that I am here,' _I pondered the possibility.

"She will be in for a surprise tonight at dinner then," I said, as I got into the limo, driving with it's tinted black windows back to the finest hotel in Malibu that money can buy to prepare for dinner.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28-

Tony POV-

"That went well, I think," I told Pepper as I walked out of the office after Vlad had left.

"What happened in there anyway?" she asked, following behind me as we both headed out of the building. Considering Vlad had been my only appointment for today, that gave me plenty of time to go home and conspire with Danny and his friends. Is it sad that my free time is spent with teenagers?

"Nothing much, he had the same plan as last time, just changed a little, so I declined it…oh…and we're going to dinner with him tonight," I replied, nonchalantly.

Pepper was a little taken aback by this, "Are you sure that's a good idea, Tony?" she asked, obviously hoping that I would reconsider.

"Yep. You, me, and Dani at Chart House at 6:30," I told her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pepper purse her lips, probably in concern for Danielle, but after a few seconds, she sighed deeply.

"Okay, I'll set it up," she reluctantly agreed.

Normally, I would have driven myself to work and Pepper would have driven separately after dropping Danielle off at school, but today, as a way of adding to the façade, we all rode in the limo. We arrived home and walked through the front door, only to be immediately bombarded by three anxious teenagers.

"How'd it go?"

"That was fast."

"Did it go well?"

They said at the same time. I held up my hands to stop the questions.

"It went fine, you were right, we're having dinner at 6:30," I told them.

"Wait a minute…you all knew that Vlad would invite Tony to dinner?" Pepper asked narrowing her eyes.

Danny and Sam quickly shouted "No!" at the same time Tucker said "Yes," earning him a glare from the two love birds. Pepper's eyebrows lowered suspiciously at them, and then she turned the full focus of her glare on me before sighing and, I guess, figuring that this was one more thing that she was being left out of, and going to the home office to get us a reservation at Chart House.

"Tucker—!" Danny and Sam shouted, but I cut them off.

"Listen, it's okay, we'll probably tell Pepper everything after the Vlad thing blows over anyway. More importantly, those vultures were here earlier," I added.

"I know," Danny groaned.

"We were in our rooms and Tucker and I had to force him not to go suck them into a thermos," Sam told me.

"Well, at least we proved that they can't get in, and I got to zap them, in fact I got to show Vlad that they were zapped," I told them.

"YOU WHAT?" they yelled in unison.

"Trust me, I had my reasons," I told them, and they calmed down a little, "One, Vlad would have been suspicious if there was suddenly a ghost shield around my house, so I made up a story about how the security installer thought my problems were paranormal. Which, I might add, will force him to reconsider his plans a little, _and_, it will make him think that Danielle hasn't told me her secret yet," I informed them. Danny nodded slowly, then he grinned.

"Yeah, now he will be _really_ taken by surprise when we take him down," he beamed.

"Yeah, but before we knew he would come here to take Danielle, now we don't know his next move," Sam pointed out, dampening both of our moods.

"But we know ours," Tucker said.

"And that is?" I asked, sitting on the couch.

"Well, obviously, you go to dinner—" Sam started.

"You show up _late _to dinner," Danny finished and received weird looks from Tucker and Sam, "What? It will piss him off."

"Fine. You show up _late _to dinner," Sam repeated, rolling her eyes, "And you keep up the façade that you know nothing about Danielle or her relationship with him," Sam said.

"In other words, you will pretend to be oblivious as Danny," Tucker said.

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed in protest causing Sam to crack a small smile.

"Ignore how uncomfortable Danielle looks, order three of the most expensive things on the menu, accidentally spill a drink on Vlad, that kind of stuff," Tucker added, "After dinner, we're just going to have to wing it."

I nodded, understanding the plan. The three teens sat on the other couch.

"You should know that I also zapped him a little. I think I said something like, static electricity is a bitch isn't it," I smirked and the three teens laughed.

Dani POV-

I had finished my work early, as usual, so I was bored, listening to my iPod, when my ghost sense went off. I groaned internally, but, obviously, ignored it.

Out of the corner of my eye, through one of the large windows of my classroom, I saw a neon green form. Unfortunately, I could not ignore the urge to see who it was peering into the classroom. It was one of Vlad's vulture minions. I half expected him to swoop in and abduct me right now, but he didn't. Instead, he just floated there, watching me, which, was almost worse.

I switched to Back in Black by AC/DC and cranked it to a high level (well, a high level for me, which is still inaudible to everyone else) and started tapping my foot on the linoleum floor, and drumming my fingers on the table. My anxiety did not go unnoticed by Issa who sat directly next to me. She followed my gaze to the window, and I saw her surprise when she saw the green vulture. When the vulture noticed that he had been spotted by someone else, he vanished.

I shot a brief look of gratitude at Issa who smiled back. He might have been away from the window for now, but I could still feel his ghostly presence around the school, making it impossible for me to relax.

'_I sure hope all of this is over tomorrow,' _I thought desperately.


	29. Chapter 29

**Sorry for the longer-than-usual wait, between exams and Christmas stuff, and just plain family…stuff, this is the longest moment I have had to myself. But anyway, Chapter 29, here it is. (Oh, and just so you know, I didn't just make up the food, nor have I been to a Chart House, I just looked up the menu online).**

Chapter 29:

Dani POV-

After I got home from school, we had a little time to kill before dinner, so, we went shopping.

With my anxiety the way it was and my ghost sense going off periodically, the last place I wanted to be was a crowded shopping mall, but, Danny, Tucker, and Tony, wanted to be there even less, so their unenthusiastic glares were enough to amuse me and ease some of my anxiety.

Sam insisted that we go straight for Hot Topic. And, let's just say, Pepper did not want to.

Sam and Tucker thought it would be a great idea for me to play the rebellious daughter part, with fake tattoos and piercings but Pepper refused to allow it. As a result, most of the time we spent in there was for Sam buying things for herself, but I did manage to find a pair of black stud earrings to wear.

Pepper insisted that we go to JCPenny's next for me to get something more formal and _appropriate _to wear. The boys (and Tony) groaned, and made a beeline for the comfortable seating the second we stepped into the dress department. Pepper shoved probably about six dresses into my arms within the first few seconds, and Sam tacked on a few more., before they both ushered me into the dressing rooms.

Twenty minutes later, after I had ruled out most of the dresses, all three of us (but mostly Pepper and Sam, because I had little of a say in what I was supposed to wear) agreed on a silky purple dress that fell slightly below my knees and had two thick straps that tied behind my head.

"Finally!" Tony exclaimed when we left the dress department.

"Not yet," Pepper corrected him (the look on Tony's face was priceless), "We still need some shoes," she said, gesturing to my sneakers.

"But it's already 6:15," Tony whined.

"So, since when do you care about being on time?" Pepper arched an eyebrow with a smirk.

"Yeah, you guys need to be late anyway," Sam added. Tony, Tucker, and Danny groaned, and quickly found new seating in the shoe area.

Finding shoes went a lot better than finding a dress. It only took five minutes for Sam and Pepper to decide on a short, black, pair of wedge heels, and then another three to wait in line, and another two for Pepper to find the coupon that she had been emailed.

"Are we ready now?" Danny practically begged, I considered lying and torturing him a little bit more, but instead I simply nodded.

I changed into my new outfit before we left, stashing my other clothes in a bag. Neither Danny nor I had had our ghost sense go off within the past hour, so we figured that Vlad no longer had anyone watching us, but, just to be sure, Danny, Tucker, and Sam left the mall with their hoods up and immediately got into the darkly tinted limo to be taken home, while, three minutes later, Pepper, Tony, and I got into one of Tony's cars as he drove us to the restaurant. When we arrived we were close to seventeen minutes late, and my heart was beating like I had just run a marathon in thirty seconds. I had no idea how Vlad was going to play this out. Which made me all the more nervous. Tony put his hand, reassuringly, on my shoulder and gave me a small smile before we went in.

Vlad had, of course, picked the most secluded table at the very back of the restaurant. And when the hostess showed us to the table, I could see that Vlad was already pissed off for us being so late. The second he saw us, he masked his annoyance with an attempting-to-be-enthusiastic-but-was-actually-creepy-smile and greeted us. I couldn't help but notice that he paid a little to much attention to me.

"I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show," Vlad laughed, fakely, sounding more like he had intended for us not to show up.

"Well, we hit some traffic on the way here," Tony lied smoothly, "You already know Pepper, but this is Dani. Dani this is Vlad," Tony introduced me as though we were perfect strangers.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you Danielle," he shook my hand, still looking at me with his creepy smile.

"Nice to meet you," I forced a smile, swallowing the lump in the back of my throat.

"Well, why don't we all sit down," Tony suggested.

Guess who had to sit across from Vlad. But I guess it was better than sitting next to him, a spot given to Pepper who looked almost as uncomfortable as me, when Vlad kept eyeing her.

"So Danielle, you must be in 5th grade?" Vlad asked.

"6th grade actually," I replied, shortly. Vlad nodded, though I'm sure he already knew that.

"A girl like you must have lots of _close _friends?" He prompted. I stiffened. He had emphasized _close _because he wanted to be able to use my friends against me, so, I lied.

"No, not really, everyone thinks I'm kind of weird," I shrugged.

"You're not weird," Pepper assured me, she opened her mouth like she wanted to point out one of my friends, but the pleading look in my eyes must have convinced her not to."

"I agree," Vlad interjected, "I'm sure you're not weird, everybody is probably just jealous of your living conditions."

I nodded, but refused to make eye contact.

"Danielle is so smart," Tony gushed, changing the subject off of me, "Almost as smart as I was at her age," he added with a playful nudge, "Already, in sixth grade, learning calculus. Soon she'll be able to run Stark Industries for me." I could tell he was kidding, again, but I couldn't help but smile at the praise.

"Is that so?" Vlad asked, feigning surprise, "Where did you get so smart?" he asked, looking smug.

I didn't have an explanation for that, for the longest time, I have always thought that maybe my brains came from Vlad tinkering with my genetics, and it was obvious that Vlad thought so too.

"I think I can answer that," Tony stepped in, "I don't think that her smarts came from either of her parents, because they couldn't have been very smart to give her up. But, I think that her smarts came from her. I think, Danielle had something to prove to the world, and she has done a great job of proving it. And then, after being placed in the competition of the foster system, made her step it up even more."

I smiled at Tony. At the same time, I saw a flicker of anger across Vlad's face.

Suddenly the waiter came up. "Can I take your drink orders and maybe get you some appetizers?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll have a glass of the Estancia Meritage," Tony ordered some wine.

"Of course, Mr. Stark," the waiter said, writing it on his pad.

"I think I'll have the same," Pepper agreed putting down the menu.

"Might as well make it three," Vlad laughed, though I could tell he didn't really want it. And he was even more angered at the fact that the waiter had failed to recognize him the way he had Tony.

"And I'll just have a Dr. Pepper, please," I said, handing the menu over to the waiter.

"Of course," the waiter continued to write, "Any appetizers?"

Vlad looked like he wanted to say "no" but Tony overpowered him.

"Sounds great," Tony said, "Hmm…ooh, the Crab, Avocado and Mango Stack looks great. Two of those please."

Pepper gave him a weird look, and then I realized why: Tony doesn't like mango, or Avocado for that matter. He had simply ordered that because it was one of the most expensive appetizers on the menu.

When the waiter finished writing he walked off.

"Anyway, where was I?" Vlad asked, "Oh, yes. What was your last Name before you were adopted by Mr. Stark?" Vlad asked.

"Fenton," I said simply, looking him dead in the eyes this time.

"Really?" Vlad asked, "How interesting. I know some Fenton's who live in Amity Park. One of them is a complete idiot, but hid wife is beautiful. Anywho, you do slightly resemble their son, whose name is, Danny, ironically," Vlad pressed.

"Really?" I asked, pretending to be surprised, "Maybe I should get in touch with him. Maybe he's a long lost relative, like a third cousin once removed, or something," I replied, using the exact same "relation" Vlad had told me to tell Danny when I had first met him.

"So, Mr. Stark, what is it like to suddenly take on the paternal figure to a young girl?" Vlad asked, still having a stare down with me.

"Well, I'm sure you saw the press conference. But, it's been…an experience. I didn't have a great father figure, so I was convinced that I wouldn't be much of a father to her. And, I must say, it was difficult at first. I'm sure I made some mistakes, but, it's also been one of the best experiences of my life. Danielle is a great daughter, and we really have a lot in common," Tony put his arm around my shoulders.

Vlad frowned, quickly, of course, before once again plastering on his creepy smile.

"That's wonderful," he said, "What about your parents before, do you remember anything about them?"

I nodded, "Well, I never knew my mom. But my dad was a complete dick." Vlad was a little taken aback, but he tried not to let it show and Tony looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"Danielle!" Pepper reprimanded me.

I smiled sheepishly in her direction. "Well, he was. He was an egotistical, worthless, seriously crazed up Fruitloop, and anything I did was never enough for him. And then he because abusive, to the point where he tried to destroy me," I never broke eye contact with Vlad, "I'm just glad I was taken out of there when I was. And I _never _intend to be in that situation _ever _again."

"Hmm, well, um," Vlad cleared his throat, "Danielle, what do you like to do for fun?" he changed the subject.

"Help Tony with his cars and weapons and inventions, listen to music, go to the beach," I shrugged.

"That's nice," Vlad sighed, clearly happy that I accepted the change of subject. The waiter returned with our drinks and we ordered our food, Tony, once again, choosing the most expensive item, the Filet and Cold Water Lobster Tail, and ordering it. After another ten minutes of awkward dinner conversation, our food finally arrived.

Tony raised his wine glass, and the rest of us followed suit.

"Cheers," he said, with a smirk on his face, before clinking his glass with ours. Knowing what was coming next, I inched a little out of the splash zone. Unfortunately, Pepper didn't have the same option.

Tony "accidentally" let his glass slip out of his hand, spilling red wine all over Vlad, and a little on Pepper. It wouldn't have been so bad for Vlad if he wasn't wearing a white shirt.

"I am so sorry," Tony lied, and leaned over with his napkin attempting to remove some of the excess wine off of the table, and, in doing so, "accidentally" knocked Pepper's wine onto Vlad as well.

At this point, Vlad looked about to blow, but somehow, he managed to hold it together, as we called the waiter over and he cleaned it up. Another twenty minutes later, we had finished and Tony ordered dessert for me. Hot Chocolate Lava Cake, and let me just say, it was good. Of course, it might have tasted even better knowing that Vlad had paid for it.

The total bill, when it was handed to Vlad, was $255.92, which would have been a small bill for Vlad, but he was reluctant to pay it, either way.

We finally said goodbye and went home. All that was left now was to figure out what Vlad's next move was.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

Tony POV-

The dinner, actually went better than I expected. Of course, by the end, I half expected Vlad to ghost zap me, but, surprisingly, he didn't.

I found it hilariously awesome when Dani trash talked her "father," but I tried really hard to contain it, especially considering that I am not supposed to know why that would be so funny. And, even while Pepper scolded Dani, I saw her crack a small smile at the look on Vlad's face.

Now, we are finally on our way home.

I expected to be bombarded with questions the second we walked into the house. But, as it turned out, Danny Sam and Tucker couldn't even wait that long as they rushed out of the front door to meet us at the car.

"How was it?" Danny demanded.

"How'd it go?" Sam asked at the same time.

"Did you spill anything on him?" Tucker wondered.

I held up my hands to the glass of the car window as a sign that I would answer their questions when I got out. The three teenagers smiled sheepishly and stepped away, allowing me to actually _get_ out of the car.

Dani, Pepper and I got out of the car.

"It went…fine, and yes: wine on his white shirt. Now let's go in the house to answer the rest of your questions," I told them and led the way through the front door.

"Danielle, how are you doing?" Danny asked her, concerned as we sat on the couch (I swear, since Danielle came into my house, we have used this couch more than the entire time I had owned it before).

Dani shrugged pulling her legs up beside her on the couch, "It was hard to face him…but, I'll be okay…for now, at least. But we still don't know his next move."

"We will," I said deviously, and all eyes turned to me, "I might have put a microscopic camera on his palm."

"Awesome!" Tucker exclaimed, then we've got to get to the lab and see what's going on. I laughed as they all enthusiastically followed him to the lab. Pepper laughed too, and followed them so that they could actually _get in_ the lab.

I stood up, but Danielle, who had lagged behind a little, grabbed my arm.

"Thanks, for everything you said at the restaurant…it really helped," she muttered quietly. I smiled a little, and put my hand on her shoulder.

"No thanks required. I meant everything I said. You have been a great daughter and he was, as you put it, 'a complete dick' for ever thinking you wouldn't be good enough," I assured her. She grinned, giving me a hug, before racing down the stairs to join the others.

"It shouldn't take too long to override the system…" I heard the arrogant voice of Vlad as I entered the lab. The image on the screen from the camera, the view of which should have been his wine stained shirt was actually a glowing white and black shirt. Near the top of the screen, I could also see the edge of his blue-green ghost face, and even farther in the background, I saw his vulture minions.

"Wait a minute!" Pepper exclaimed, "That's obviously not the same Vlad we met at dinner, so either he found the camera and gave it to this ghost _or _the five of you need to start talking _now_," she demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest and giving all of us, or, more specifically, me, pointed looks.

Finally, Dani sighed, casting a glance at Danny, probably asking for the all-clear to give up his secret too.

"Fine. Vlad Masters is Vlad Plasmius," Dani admitted.

Pepper, had, obviously, expected this, but she still seemed confused at how that was possible, so Danny stepped in.

"He's half-ghost because of a lab accident when he was in college with my parents," Danny answered her unspoken question.

"Okay…and you are involved in this…why?" Pepper asked, with an arched eyebrow, like she had already guessed the answer.

Danny and Danielle shared a look, before letting out a deep sigh and transforming.

Even if she had guessed at their secrets, Pepper was still surprised at the transformation.

"What about you two?" Pepper asked Tucker and Sam.

Sam shrugged, "We were there when Danny got his powers, actually, it was sort of my fault, and we help Danny fight and capture ghosts in Amity Park."

Pepper nodded slowly, and turned towards Danielle.

"So…is it genetic?" She asked.

"We don't know," they all in unison.

"But—" Pepper was cut off.

"Vlad isn't really my father," Dani said, "He's just…technically my creator…" Danielle winced.

"Danielle, was created to be a…clone of me, because Vlad wanted the perfect half-ghost son, and when I wouldn't join him…" Danny added.

"He started exploring other options," Sam continued.

"But, clearly, something went wrong…" Tucker added.

"Because I'm…obviously, not Danny," Danielle finished, gesturing to herself.

"I think I need to sit down," Pepper said, sitting in the seat behind her. After a minute of silence, she turned to me.

"You _knew _about this and you didn't tell me," she walked over to me and poked my chest angrily.

"I told him not to tell you," Danielle said, looking guilty. Pepper's expression softened and she put her hands on Danielle's ghostly shoulders, "I didn't want you to worry about me," Dani added.

"There's not much you can do about that, she _still _worries about me," I interjected, with a smirk in Pepper's direction.

"Yes, I worry, and I will continue to worry," she glared at me, then turned back to Dani, "But I only do it because I care. And, I won't make you stop, even if I don't like it, partially, because something tells me I couldn't if I tried," Pepper smiled.

"Um…guys," Tucker called from the computer, "Not that this isn't a heartwarming family moment or anything, but they're on their way here."

"Tony," Danny said, "Now would be a great time to suit up."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31:

Dani POV-

"Wait, WHAT?!" I exclaimed, having just found out that the plan included me acting as live bait.

"Come on Dani, you know this is the only way we can do it. Vlad wants you," Danny told me.

"And, he'll be heading right into our trap," Tony added, awkwardly sitting on the couch in the Iron Man suit with his face mask up.

"Okay, but remind me again why we just can't wait for him to break in..." I begged.

Danny shook his head, "By the time he does that, he'll recognize some of the Fenton technology we used and the element of surprise would be lost."

"Danielle, you can do this," Tony told me putting his hand on my shoulder.

"I know…" I whimpered. Ghost seemed to sense my emotions because he laid his fluffy head on my lap, looking up at me pleadingly. I stroked his ears, ruffling the fur on his head, before standing up and transforming, "Okay," I took a deep breath, "I'm ready. What else do I need to do?" I asked.

"Well," Tucker started, "You'll be wearing the Fenton Phones, so get him talking, see what he will tell you about his plan. We'll have it all recorded here."

"Okay…" I nodded slowly, knots forming in my stomach, "How long until he gets here."

"My guess would be a minute and thirty seconds," Tucker said watching the screen.

"I guess I better get out there then," I gulped.

"We'll be right there when you need us," Tony assured me, his mask coming down, as I flew out through the ceiling.

The night air was cool, but not cold. The sun had already gone down, the only light left was the blue glow on the horizon over the ocean and the light from the already-rising moon. The moon was full tonight, but wispy clouds moved in front of it, casting weird shadows around me. Every instinct I had was telling me to fly away, but I didn't. Everybody else was counting on me, so I stood firm.

My ghost sense went off. They were here.

"Hello Danielle," I heard Vlad's voice and then he appeared in front of me, "So nice of you to meet me out here. I was afraid I would have to disable the security system.

"What do you want Vlad?" I demanded, trying to hide the shake in my voice.

He _tsked _in false disappointment. "I don't like your attitude Danielle. Now, you know what I want, what I've always wanted."

"To destroy me," I supplied.

"Destroy is such a…harsh word, think of it this way: with you gone, I would be able to create _new_ life," he sneered in a creepy smile.

"And if I say 'no'?" I asked. He laughed darkly, and floated closer to me.

"I think you and I both know that this decision is not up to you," he smiled at me creepily again, before shooting me with a ghost ray. I was knocked out of the spot where I was floating skidding onto the roof.

"What was the purpose of meeting Pepper and Tony? Why not just take me?" I asked, holding my arm that was sore from when he had blasted it.

"Why, as a way of getting you to cooperate of course," he floated down towards me.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH THEM!" I shrieked.

"Nothing, so long as you come with me, and do as I say," he said in a low tone, he grasped my sore arm yanking me off of the roof roughly.

"What will you do to them if I don't," I said quietly.

"Well, first, I will tell them your secret, in fact, considering how much you _love_ them, I'm surprised you haven't told them already. Then one of two things will happen: they will either reject you, or they will foolishly try to help you, if they do that, you will watch them be killed, slowly and painfully, if you do not leave them," he said.

"You know. No matter what world you come from, kidnapping, child abuse, blackmail, and murder are illegal," I heard a voice above us, I smiled to myself knowing it was Tony. Vlad looked up surprised to see Iron Man. In his surprise, he loosened his grip on my arm just enough for me to slide out and shoot the back of his head with a ghost ray. I floated up next to Tony.

"You know Vlad. I have no intention of letting you hurt the people I care about, so, I got some back up," I told him with a smirk. At that moment, Tony fired a beam at Vlad too.

Vlad stood up, chuckling.

"Danielle, you should know better than to bring others into our family problems," He said and charged at Tony. Tony fired but Vlad turned intangible and simply left a hole through the roof, and continued towards Tony, probably with the intention of overshadowing him.

When Vlad laid his intangible hands on the Iron Man suit, he was immediately zapped by the built-in spector deflector, until he was writhing on the ground like he had been tazed.

"Really, Vlad," I heard Danny's voice this time, as he appeared, "Do you honestly think that Danielle would go into battle against you without contacting me? I see you've already met some of the advancements in the Iron Man suit. He has everything to be able to take you down, and a built-in spector deflector so he would not be overshadowed."

Vlad stood up, and whirled around only to be blasted by the three of us in unison, knocking him down again.

"Vlad, you seem outnumbered," I told him. But he only grinned, snapping his fingers. Suddenly, Vlad's three vulture minions emerged from the darkness, followed by Walker, warden of the Ghost Zone, and _a lot_ of his goons.

"Well, now it seems like you're outnumbered," Vlad extended his arms to show his forces.

"Not, completely," I smirked, and Tucker, Sam, Pepper, emerged, all carrying weapons of their own. Vlad laughed.

"It was far-fetched to believe that one human could defeat me," he gestured to Tony, "But four? You don't have a prayer."

"I guess we'll see about that," I said, blasting Vlad with a ghost ray, and the battle had officially begun.

In the first five seconds, Tony had managed to take out the vultures with one missile, knocking them off of the roof. I knew they would be back, but it had bought us a little time.

Danny took on Walker.

"Fighting for humans, that's against the rules," he said before he took a blast to the chest.

"Shouldn't fighting _against _humans be _against _the rules?" Danny asked as he blasted him again. Vlad was engaged in battle with Tony, and now Walker's minions descended upon Pepper, Tucker, Sam, and Issa.

I blasted them, turning their attention on to me, and giving Sam and Pepper the opening they needed to pelt the goons with ecto bullets.

One made contact, "wounding" the ghost, but the others turned intangible before they could be hit.

Another group of goon, had now completely surrounded Tony, I flew towards him to help, but Vlad caught me, throwing me through the open whole in the roof so that we were now in my bedroom, separated from the fight.

"You've just sentenced them all to death for defending you," he told me, a trickle of reddish green blood trickled out of a cut on his cheek. Behind him, the door pushed open and I saw Ghost enter, his lips curled into a snarl. I needed to stall.

"What good will that do? How will killing them help you to get me. Tony will get you. He knows a lot of important people. He will ruin you if you take me," I told him.

"Tony wasn't even up on the roof to defend your worthless life. What makes you think he would do anything to save you?" he sneered, stepping closer to me. Now, I was at my desk, which, had been exactly what I wanted. I put my hand on a little black remote that activated the spector deflector built into Ghost's collar. From behind Vlad it glowed with green energy.

"Because," I told him, "Tony had done more for me and loved me more in the short time I've been here, than you did in the whole time I was with you."

"That's because all you are to Tony is someone to make him look good in front of the press, that's all you will ever matter to him," Vlad gripped the collar of my suit, hoisting me off of the ground.

"You know another thing Tony got me that you never did?" I asked, trying to remain collected.

"What?" he asked, glaring at me with his piercing red eyes.

"A dog. Ghost sic' um!" I shouted and my dog leapt at Vlad from behind ripping his clothes to shreds, and Zapping Vlad every time he touched him. Vlad had been so surprised he didn't even think to go intangible. He fired at Ghost, but Ghost managed to leap out of the way just in time, clamping his teeth into Vlad's shoulder blade. I knew next time Vlad fired that he wouldn't miss, so I flew over Vlad's battered body, picking Ghost up, and flying out of the house with him.

I set him down, and he started to attack all of the other ghosts on the roof. The now, distracted ghosts were made open targets now. Danny took out his thermos, sucking in the vultures and Walker's goons, leaving only Walker left on the roof, I had assumed Vlad had retreated when he had seen that he was loosing this battle. I flew over to Pepper, Sam, and Tucker, making sure they were alright. They were, with the exception of a few bumps and scratches. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they would be okay.

Tony flew down to Walker's level with Danny.

"I'm Iron Man," Tony introduced himself, staking the stern warden ghost off guard, "I protect the human world, just like the Phantom's do. And, I'm afraid, you putting humans in danger is against the rules. Not only that, but it seems that Vlad has now left for you to take the entire blame."

The ghost was surprised and looked like he had nothing to say in reply.

"This is a high offense in the human world. However," Danny said, "We may have a deal for you."

Tony nodded, continuing, "Vlad is guilty of kidnapping, child abuse, blackmail, and threatening murder on humans."

"And if you help us to take him down and turn him into the observers, your involvement in this will be omitted," Danny finished laying the proposition on the table.

Walker seemed to think for a minute, before extending his hand. Tony turned down the intensity of the spector deflector before shaking the ghost's hand. Afterwards, Walker vanished, leaving us on the rooftop alone.

I fell to my knees, with the overwhelming sense of relief before standing back up to gave everyone a hug.

"You know this isn't over," Danny said.

I nodded, "Yeah, I know he'll come back soon to get me. But it's over for now, and that's all that matters."

"Come on," Tony said, putting up his face mask, "Let's go inside and get some rest."

We all agreed in relief, as we went back inside of the house.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32:

Dani POV-

Considering the gaping hole in the ceiling of bedroom, Tony let me sleep in his bed. Plus, I have to admit, it made me fell a lot safer, especially with Vlad still out to get me.

Pepper stayed over too, which made even Tony's extra large bed feel a little cramped (especially when Ghost decided to curl up at our feet, much to Tony's protests).

The next morning, we were all woken up by the alarm on Pepper's cellphone. She sat up, and stretched, gently nudging up about getting ready for the press conference. I yawned and sat up too. I smiled at Pepper. She was looking the most laid back I have ever seen her, wearing one of Tony's t-shirts and sweat shirts.

"Everybody survive the night?" Tony asked, siting up. Pepper opened her mouth, but then there was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Come in," Pepper called, and Sam opened the door followed by Danny and Tucker.

"What time is the press conference?" Sam asked.

"In two hours, we're getting ready now," Pepper replied, nudging us out of bed, a little more forcefully this time. Tony groaned and rolled out of the other side of bed. Sam nodded and closed the door to the bedroom.

"Come on Ghost," I called the dog, "Let's go get ready. What should I wear?" I asked.

"Just a skirt and nice shirt will be fine," Pepper told me before I left to go to my room. The living room and kitchen were empty, probably because Danny, Sam, and Tucker were busy getting ready to leave.

I decided on a black-knee length skirt, and a green and black shirt that hung a little off of my shoulders and the same black wedge shoes that I had gotten for dinner yesterday.

'_Wow,' _I thought to myself, '_Dinner was only last night? After everything that happened, it felt like forever ago.' _

I ran a brush through my hair, shifting my part to the side, before I came back out into the living room. Now, there was a ton of activity in the main area of the house, mostly done by Pepper who seemed more nervous than the rest of us about the press conference, and was buzzing all over the place.

I poured myself a bowl of cereal, and sat on one of the barstools by the countertop, where Tucker had his laptop set up.

"I just finished editing the recording from last night," Tucker announced.

"Great," Tony exclaimed getting off of the couch, "Let's hear it."

The rest of us gathered around the laptop and Tucker pressed the play button.

"_Hello Danielle," _his disembodied voice came through the speakers, just as creepily as it had yesterday night.

_"What do you want Vlad?"_ my voice came next, and Tucker had managed to emphasize the shake in my voice, or at least I _hope_ that my voice had not actually been shaking that badly.

Vlad_tsked _over the speakers, and I cringed a little. _"I don't like your attitude Danielle. Now, you know what I want, what I've always wanted."_

_"To destroy me," _I heard myself say, the sound of fear, once again, prominent in my voice.

_"Destroy is such a…harsh word, think of it this way: with you gone, I would be able to create __new__ life." _Hearing the way he said that over the tape was almost more terrifying than when he had said it last night, I just hoped it would come off that way at the press conference.

_"And if I say 'no'?" _I asked, my voice a little lower than before_. _Then I heard Vlad's dark laugh.

_"I think you and I both know that this decision is not up to you." _

Then there was a yelp, my yelp, that I had not realized I had made when he blasted me to the ground.

_"What was the purpose of meeting Pepper and Tony? Why not just take me?" _I heard my self say, pain obvious in my voice.

_"Why, as a way of getting you to cooperate of course," _Vlad told me and I could still see the smug sneer on his face.

_"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH THEM!" _I shrieked. In that scream, I could hear all the anger and fear I had bottled up.

_"Nothing, so long as you come with me, and do as I say," _Vlad's voice was low.

_"What will you do to them if I don't," _I whispered, in the tape_._

_"If…they will foolishly try to help you…you will watch them be killed, slowly and painfully, if you do not leave them," _he said, I knew that right after that Tony had appeared in the Iron Man suit, but instead of including our battle, Tucker skipped ahead to when Vlad had separated me and cornered me in my bedroom_._

_"What good will that do? How will killing them help you to get me. Tony will get you. He knows a lot of important people. He will ruin you if you take me," _I heard my weak response to Vlad_._

_"Tony…[couldn't]…defend your worthless life. What makes you think he would do anything to save you?" _Vlad countered. Afterwards, Tucker inserted another scream, another one, I realized was mine, but I didn't remember screaming.

Overall, the recording was expertly cut, and made Vlad sound horrible. I only feared how he would retaliate against me, or us, after this was released.

"Dani do you have an marks from last night?" Sam asked, sounding doubtful, which made sense, with the rate that Danny and I heal, we usually don't show any visible marks after ten minute, much less ten hours. However, for whatever reason, I did have a few marks left over from last night.

I rolled up my sleeve, where the although-fading imprint of a hand was still there, in the spot where Vlad had grasped my arm.

"Wow," Danny said, "I'm surprised. He must have grabbed you really hard to have a mark still be there."

"So how's this going to work when the press conference starts?" I asked.

"Well, I'll start it off, then I'll introduce you. You'll tell your story, then we'll play the tape and show off your bruise. After that, we're done and Vlad's ruined," Tony said with a smirk.

"Yeah…sorry we can't support you up there, but my parents…" Danny said.

I held up a hand to indicate that I understood. "I get it, and I don't expect you too. You stuck your neck out just to come here and help me, so I won't ask for anything else from you," I told him, and he sighed in relief because he had probably been beating himself up about it all morning, "But you guys should come with us…I'm worried about what kind of stunt Vlad might pull on the press conference."

"Of course we'll be there," Sam assured me.

"Speaking of, we should be leaving now," Pepper insisted. We agreed, following Pepper out of the door and into the limo.

We were early, but, nevertheless, some reporters had already gathered outside of Stark Industries, waiting to be let in, bombarding us with questions right as we walked in. Danny, Sam, and Tucker, had stayed in the limo, and would come in the back, so not to attract attention to themselves.

I ignored the reporters and followed Tony and Pepper inside. The reporters went to the press conference room, while the three of us waited in a separate room. Pepper then left to keep an eye on the crowd. A few minutes later, the back door opened and Danny, Sam, and Tucker came in. Tony pulled a water bottle out of a mini fridge, tossing one to me.

"How are you feeling?" he asked me.

"Nervous," I replied after taking a drink from the water bottle.

"Don't be, you'll be fine," Danny assured me.

The door to the press conference opened, and Pepper poked her head in.

"It's time," she nodded to us, and Tony and I followed her out into the room. The chatter of a hundred reporters all talking at once was quieted when Tony held up his hands at the podium.

"Now, I'm sure you are all wondering why I have called you here today. But actually, it is mostly for my daughter, Danielle. Recently, I was visited by someone who made quite an impact on Danielle's past, and she would like to tell you about it," Tony motioned for me to take the podium. I swallowed, took a deep breath, and stepped up.

"Now, I know that I told all of you that my father was an alcoholic that was killed while driving drunk. This, actually, is not the case. I lied, because I feared the repercussions that would be taken, but I'm not afraid anymore. The truth is, although I really never knew my mother, but my father is actually Vlad Master," I told them. A unanimous gasp sounded through the room, and I continued, "And the part I didn't make up was the abuse. None of you knew about me because I was intended to be kept a secret. You see, my father had never wanted a daughter, he wanted a son. To him, I was a mistake. I got away and had been running and finding myself in different foster homes until Pepper and Tony adopted me. But, with all the media attention, Vlad then knew where to find me. After that, he made an appointment with Tony for some business deal, but the real reason was to find out how close I was with them so that he could use them as a bargaining chip when he decided to kidnap me.

"Tony only recently found out all of this, and when he did we made a plan to catch him in the act. The other day, he came to my house. I had been waiting for him while wearing a wire. Here's what we recorded…" I nodded to Tony who press the play button.

The reporters seemed stunned by the audio on the tape, and when it finally finished they all looked at me with rapt attention. By that time, I was a little shaken, which I guess made for good theatrics to the crowd.

"He also left this bruise on my arm," I told them rolling up my sleeve. I saw the camera zoom in on the nasty bruise. I looked to Tony, who nodded, coming, up behind me and laying a hand on my shoulders.

"After the final scream on that tape when he grabbed her arm, Pepper and I stepped in to help her because we had been listening to the whole thing. And with the threat of some of the Stark Industry weapons looming over him, Vlad fled. Unfortunately, we do not feel that this will be his last attempt at Danielle. I would also like to add that Danielle, decided to disclose all of this because she wanted to finally reveal the truth about Vlad to the world: a manipulative, blackmailing man, who was also an abusive father. However, I ask that you do not press her further, the memories are still painful to her, however, she will speak up about her father if she chooses to," we walked away from the podium, Tony's hand still protectively on my shoulder and Pepper stepped up to announce that that would conclude the press conference.

I took a deep breath. I had kept my promise, Tony did ruin Vlad, now, we just had to wait for Vlad's next attack.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33:

Vlad POV-

"How dare that little brat!" I shouted, after watching the newscast. They had slandered my name. Of course, with the public as easily manipulated as they are, my reputation would soon be restored, but, even still, the nerve of that girl! Not only that, but, and I'm not sure how this could have happened, I underestimated Mr. Stark as well.

I changed into my ghost form, ready to go a wreak havoc on the press conference right now, maybe even force her to expose herself.

Then I paused. '_What better way to torture her, than to let her sweat it out a little longer,'_ I thought. Floating back to the floor I changed back to human form.

"Yes," I said, "I'll wait. I'll bide my time, at least for a few more days. And during that time, she won't be able to sleep or eat or think without constantly being on her guard. Then, I'll strike when Mr. Stark's publicity cannot assist her, when no one can assist her. Now, the only problem here, is Daniel. I suppose he cannot be here forever, but he will be checking up on her. Perhaps I should get him and his friends out of the way first, then despite the intervention of Iron Man they will be outnumbered when I return to strike again."

Dani POV-

Through the rest of the weekend, there was an uneasy tension over the house. As the saying goes, it was quiet, too quiet. And, with my bedroom still in disrepair, I bunked with Sam yesterday night and tonight. Sam was more than happy (well in her own Goth way) to let me stay in her bed. Ghost, on the other hand, she was not so thrilled about, and he had to sleep on the floor.

Even still, I didn't sleep, convinced Vlad would abduct me in my sleep and either hold me for ransom, or melt me into goop. I tossed and turned, struggling to get comfortable, until Sam rolled over and gave me her well-practiced Goth glare, and, at that, I remained still trying not to even twitch until I heard her breathing become slower and deeper.

Then, I carefully edged out of bed. I plucked Sam's spector deflector off of the chair in the corner of the room, putting it on myself along with a purple blanket, and walked out into the dark house.

With all these days being cooped up in the house or at school, I felt a little stir-crazy, and I desperately wanted to go flying in the cool night air. Of course, I knew that was a bad idea and I wasn't going to, but it didn't help me from staring out the large back windows of the house over the ocean in longing.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" I heard a voice and whipped around to see Tony step out of the shadows in the kitchen, with, surprise, surprise, a drink in his hand.

"Why are you standing in the dark?" I asked, arching an eyebrow, although I doubt he could see it in the dim light.

Tony shrugged taking another drink and moving to sit on the couch.

"I find that I haven't slept nearly as much since you came here," he said in a joking manner, but it still made me feel a little guilty as I sat next to him.

"Sorry," I mumbled quietly.

He shook his head, "I don't regret it…mostly because a lot of it was my own fault. Prying into your nonexistent files, that is. Come to think of it, a lot has changed, this is my first drink since dinner the other day, I think that's some kind of record."

I smiled a little, looking out the windows and watching the slow-moving lights of a cruise ship carrying drifting by.

Tony sighed, "Come on, it's late and you have school tomorrow," he told me, standing up and motioning for me to follow.

I rolled my eyes, not like I'd be able to focus in school tomorrow anyway, but I followed him anyway. Instead of leading me towards Sam's room, or even to his room, I realized that we were walking toward the lab. Confused, but a little intrigued, I said nothing but continued to follow.

"Here," Tony said when we finally got into the lab, and he pulled out a cot (from God knows where) and set it in a darker corner of the lab, "I always find it easier to sleep down here," he said.

"Wait…where are you going to sleep?" I asked, he shook his head.

"Don't worry about me, I have some stuff to get done," he replied sitting at his desk. I opened my mouth to protest, but I suddenly noticed how tired I was, and curled up on the little cot, falling asleep much more quickly than I thought I could.

The next morning, Jarvis woke Tony and I up. I sat up after, happy to have slept through the night to see Tony waking up too, from what looked like a very uncomfortable position in his chair. I laughed.

"Thanks, Tony," I called as I ran upstairs to get ready for school. After a good restful sleep, I was feeling refreshed. I threw on a purple pair of skinny jeans, a gray tank top, and a purple and gray cable-knit sweater over, along with a pair of gray high tops. With a light amount of eyeliner and a dusting of lavender eye shadow,

When I came out of my room, Tony was on the couch, looking like he was about to nod off into his coffee, which is probably why he hadn't noticed Tucker disassembling the toaster. The Danny stumbled out of the hallway leading to the guestrooms, his hair sticking up at funny angles.

Then Pepper opened the front door, looked around at the chaos, sighing deeply, and then looked at me.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

…

"And you're sure?" I asked for the tenth time as Pepper continued to drag me to the front door to leave.

"Yes, Danielle. Keep the Fenton Phones on you, and we'll be there if you need us," Danny assured me. Finally, I accepted, and went outside to get into Pepper's car to take me to school.

Once we got there, I was no longer only a target for Vlad. Everybody else's eyes were trained on me. I guess they must have seen the news.

Issa immediately ran up to me, giving me one of those, 'I'm-glad-you're-alive' hugs.

"I'm glad you're alive!" she exclaimed, "Why didn't you call me for the big showdown with your dad!? I could have helped!"

"I didn't want you to get involved and get hurt," I shrugged. It was a half-truth. That was definitely part of the reason, but the other part is that her aim sucks so bad, she probably would have been more of a hindrance than a help. "Next, time," I promised halfheartedly.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What?! Next time? I thought it was over?" she questioned, I shook my head.

"Do you honestly think he wouldn't retaliate after what we showed about him at the press conference, yeah, no," I told her.

Suddenly Zeke came up to us. "Dani, are you okay? I saw the press conference and, wow, I didn't know…about your dad…I mean…" he stammered and I held up a hand to tell him to stop talking.

"It's okay Zeke, nobody did. It was a secret," I said.

"But why? Why not go to the police immediately?" he asked.

"Who do you honestly think they would have believed? The 'supposed daughter' that nobody had heard of, or the powerful millionaire," I arched an eyebrow at him and he pursed his lips like he was trying and failing to come up with a good argument.

"I still think they might have believed you. It's not like you told people that Vlad was an alien who abducted you, right?" he asked, trying to make it funny.

'_Well, you're like a forth right,' _I thought, but then the bell rang, sending us our separate ways for the day.

The rest of the day was no different. I had people coming up to me all day asking about Vlad, or giving me looks of sympathy for my situation. Even Scarlett, looked at me with…and maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed almost like…guilt. On top of the students and faculty giving me their looks, I had the nagging sensation throughout the day that something _else _was watching me. And although my ghost sense had not gone off and I couldn't pinpoint exactly where the paranormal stare was coming from, I know that I had not been imagining it. I shook it off, staring at the clock, wishing the hours would tick by faster.

I was relieved when the school day had finally ended, just so I could get into Pepper's car and go home.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34:

Dani POV-

"What do you mean you have to leave!?" I exclaimed on Tuesday morning after I had been informed that, as of 2:00 this afternoon, I would no longer be able to depend on Danny, Tucker, and Sam for help.

"Sorry, Dani, I really wish we could stay, but our parents will start to get suspicious if we are gone for too long," Danny sighed. I understood, of course, that they couldn't stay forever, but it did not make me feel any better.

"But Vlad is still here," I whined.

"Come on Dani," Tony tried to lighten my mood, "You will still have me to help you in case Vlad attacks."

"Yeah, then you can catch him in a thermos and ship him to me, and I'll take him to the observers so that he can be punished for his crimes," Danny added.

"Not helping," I grumbled, still slightly irritated.

Pepper wasn't saying anything, even though I knew it was almost time to go, she just stood by the door, tapping her foot impatiently like she sometimes did. I sighed deeply.

"I've got to go," I told them, hugging them all and saying my goodbyes before I left out the front door.

Pepper said nothing on the way to school, I mean, after all, what could she say? 'Danielle, I'm sorry that you just lost half of your protection, and the only half with tons of experience fighting ghosts, and especially Vlad, but I'm sure you'll be alright' yeah, no. So instead, she just looked at me with concern out of the corner of her eye.

School went no differently than yesterday. I still could not fight the stares, whether they be the visible human ones, or the invisible paranormal ones. The school day, at least, went quickly, which, I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, the school day ending would get me closer to being farther away from the stares, but it also got it closer to 2:00 when it would be much easier for Vlad to attack.

Finally, at around 1:50, I was twitching like a something someone had just run over with their car, and I wasn't feeling much better. I stuck a pair of Fenton Phones in my ears, just in case.

The bell rang, moving us to seventh period. I clung to the crowd, not even daring to take the much faster route to class through the back hallway behind the office.

I sat down in my chair right before the tardy bell rang.

Five minutes later, it was 2:00. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were now officially beyond help, because even if they hadn't left yet, they were on a plane where I could not reach them even if I needed to.

Crap.

I bit my lip, and drummed my pencil on the desk until it earned me a few angry looks from my classmates.

"Danielle?" my teacher asked, and I practically skyrocketed out of my seat before my mind comprehended that she wasn't a threat. She gave me the kind of look you would give to a crazy person before asking if I could take a note down to the office.

"I'll do it," Issa immediately offered. Now the teacher was, once again, confused. Issa never asks to do anything. Then, probably out of distrust of Issa, she turned back to me.

"No, that's alright, Danielle can do it," she handed me the note. I sighed, casting a pained look at Issa when the teacher had turned around as I walked slowly towards the door.

The halls were empty, but I still felt eyes on me. Which meant that Vlad now knew that I was alone. I gulped and continued down the stairs to the office, which was still on the other side of the school.

My ghost sense went off and I froze.

"Um…Tony," I said into the Fenton Phones. No answer, "Tony?"

Still no answer.

Shit.

'_I guess I'm on my own,' _I gritted my teeth and continued to the office hopefully to get to a more populated area.

Unfortunately, I never made it. My ghost sense went off again, this time with more urgency. I whipped around, only to be blasted with a freaking net, which was, of course, phase proof.

Vlad laughed, disembodied at first but then he materialized in front of my, lowering his face to be in mine.

"Well, well, Danielle," he chuckled, "It seems I have the upper hand now." I glared at him then spit in his eye.

He winced, cursing as he wiped the spit out of his eye.

"Now, Danielle, I know I didn't raise you to act like that," he scolded.

"You didn't raise me at all," I growled menacingly.

He ignored my comment, continuing with his cliché villainous monologue. "Now, you're all alone. There is no one left to save you. And, less who would even care that you have gone missing. Especially, Mr. Stark. He heard your cry for help, every word, I even watched as he pressed the mute button to drown out your pathetic pleas…"

He was wrong, of course, at least I hoped he was. But, either way, Vlad was so rapped up in his own ranting that he didn't even notice Issa crouched behind the trashcan. Her wristray was out and glowing. She pointed it, probably aiming at Vlad, but, with her aim, being as poor as it is, it hit the net that had me pinned down, and me, but just a little. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, I was still mostly pinned down and I doubted that Issa could make another shot like that. Fortunately though, Vlad had not noticed.

With a little motion with my hand, Issa edged the wrist ray to the left. Quickly figuring that she would be able to hit him from that angle, I gave her the okay, and she fired. The shot hit Vlad square in the back, and he cried out, whipping around to see where the shot had come from, giving me just enough time to rip through the already present hole in the net, and get out. With his back still turned, I transformed, flying up over Vlad and landing a ghost ray on the back of his head.

He whipped around again, a little stunned that I had gotten out of the net, but he didn't let his surprise hold him back for long as he lunged for me, eyes blazing.

I turned intangible and he went right through me.

I put up a ghost shield just in time for him to blast me. The shield disintegrated after it was hit, but it had served it's purpose. I fired back at him, to which, he responded by becoming intangible. I fired again, but he was still intangible as he started to move toward me. Suddenly, I was grabbed from behind. Which one was the real Vlad, I didn't know, but that didn't matter much right now, because either way, he now had me, by the throat, I tried to wriggle free from his grasp but it was too tight. I couldn't even become intangible because he was much more powerful than I was and he was blocking my abilities.

Suddenly Issa jumped out from behind the trashcan, wristray aimed, poorly, but aimed.

Vlad laughed, "A friend of yours I presume. Well, this _is _interesting now isn't it."

"Leave her alone. Issa, go," I ordered, but my voice was weak because he was crushing my windpipe.

"I'm not leaving you Dani," Issa stood firm.

"Well, isn't this touching," Vlad laughed again.

"Issa, aim three feet to the right!" I shouted as loudly as I could.

"Are you crazy?" she asked not moving her gun. I seriously cannot believe she is arguing with me right now.

"Just do it," I gasped. Vlad laughed, amused at our exchange. After just another second of hesitation, Issa did as I asked and fired. The beam hit Vlad, directly in the hand that he had grasped around my throat.

"Ahhh!" Vlad exclaimed, dropping me. He turned to Issa, his eyes blazing once more and fired at her, just in time for me to dive in front of her and take the blow to my side.

Ouch, yeah, that hurt.

I winced, sucking in a sharp breath in pain. Issa, who I had knocked to the floor, stood up, and immediately asked if I was alright. I waved her off, partially because I was unable to answer through the pain at the moment. I was oozing with green out of my side, quickly, and I felt my energy draining with it. I turned back to Vlad, holding my side as I glared him down. I wasn't sure how much of a fight I would actually be able to put up right now but I knew I had to try.

Vlad laughed again, "You and Daniel never know when to give up, do you?"

I didn't reply, I just, meekly raised my hand that wasn't holding my side and blasted an ghost ray at him. I lurched to the side, with the amount of energy I had just used. And, although Vlad had been thrown back a little by the blast, he was looming over me again in a matter of seconds.

"You can't even fight me right now. Which will make it all the more painful, for you, to see your friends and family suffer. Starting with you!" he grabbed Issa off of the ground restraining her despite how hard she kicked and thrashed in his grasp.

"Let her go!" I shouted standing up a little straighter with adrenaline.

"Whose going to make me, you?" he asked with a laugh. By this time, a crowd had finally begun to form, shocked students assembled around us, as the teachers tried to shoo them away, while still managing to watch the fight.

"No, that would be my job!" I heard behind me I turned to see not just Tony, who had spoken, but also, Danny. And Tucker, Pepper, and Sam, came in through the back door at that moment too. The audience gasped at Iron Man.

Vlad was surprised and Tony used that to his advantage, blasting him into the wall behind him, causing Vlad to drop Issa, from the height of five feet, where she was caught by Danny. The audience clapped, like this was all some kind of show for them.

"I though you guys had left," I called to him, weakly.

Danny shrugged as he supplied his own volley of ecto blasts to Vlad, "We'll take the next flight."

I floated up, blasting Vlad too, with the combined firing force of me, Issa (kind of), Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Pepper, Vlad, was unable to get off of the ground where he was now in a large crater.

Vlad stumbled to his feet, weakly, one more time, only to be sucked into the thermos by Danny. The crowd cheered.

"Alright, nothing to see here," Tony told them, motioning for them to leave, 'Move along."

With the fight over, my adrenaline bottomed out and I collapsed to the floor, causing immediate concern from my friends who crowded around me. With them creating a barrier around me so that I could not be seen by the student body, I passed out, feeling the familiar transformation as the black covered my eyes.

I felt arms around me and I knew I was being carried. My eyes squinted open and I saw blue sky, and Tony, mask up, carrying me through the sky.

"Daddy," I mumbled, still slightly delirious.

"Yeah, Dani, it's me. And we're going to get you fixed up," I heard him say as he smiled, just before darkness covered me again.

**I hope you enjoyed that, stay tuned for the final conclusion.**


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35:

Tony POV-

Danielle collapsed after the fight.

Of course, I was immediately concerned. I hadn't realized how much blood (or ectoplasm) she had been losing until she was lying in a pool of it. Fortunately, we were able to shield her before her secret could be exposed to the lingering students in the hallway as she transformed back.

Sam immediately pulled bandages out of her backpack.

'_Wow, these kids really are prepared for anything,' _I thought as she began to wrap up the gaping wound. With all the teachers and students out of view, I put up the Iron Man mask, so I could get a better view of Danielle's condition. Danny handed me the thermos so that he could give Sam the bandages as she needed them.

I dropped it on the ground, several times, upside, just for good measure. Probably not the best idea, but I was furious.

But I never took my eyes off of Danielle. Her breathing was slow but, at least it was still there. The bandages were stained, a now, reddish-green mixture within a matter of seconds, and Sam continued to put on more applying more pressure. Finally, the blood/ectoplasm mixture was no longer visible through what was probably the fifth layer of bandages.

As carefully as I could I handed Danny the thermos before I picked Danielle off of the ground and carried her out the way we had come in, trying not to disturb the bandages. I was focused on getting her home as quickly as possible so that she could receive better medical care, so focused, in fact that I barely heard her weak voice over the rush of the wind.

"Daddy?" she squeaked in a small voice. I was surprised, she had never called me that before. I smiled back down at her.

"Yeah, Dani, it's me. And we're going to get you fixed up," I told her. I saw a slight smile appear on her lips right before she passed out again.

I flew through the entrance to the lab, laying Danielle in one of the chairs, extending it out flat, and placing a pillow under her head.

"Jarvis, do something!" I demanded.

"Sir, what do you propose I do?" Jarvis asked.

"Hook her up to an IV, monitor her breathing and heart rate. And let me know how quickly she is recovering," I ordered. Taking off the Iron Man suit.

Jarvis didn't question me further, he just set to doing what I had told him.

"Sir, her heart rate is at 23 beats per minute," Jarvis informed me, "That is not much lower than her usual heart rate, but she runs the risk of it dropping lower, however, at the moment, it has not changed. She seems to be receiving more blood at about triple the average human production which is about 75 milliliters every six hours. But, even with that, she needs blood," Jarvis informed me.

I nodded. Danny was, obviously the only one who would actually be able to get her the blood she needed. I heard a thump upstairs. They were here, and we would have to get a blood transfusion immediately. Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Issa, lead by Ghost and followed by Pepper pounded the stairs, Ghost immediately rushing to Dani's side, laying his head on her chair and whimpering softly.

"How is she?" Pepper demanded instantly.

"She needs blood," I turned to Danny.

"Right, got it," he nodded, understanding. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the lab. Pepper inserted the needle into his arm and the red-green blood filled up the tube.

After about three minutes, Danny had given enough blood, which was put into Dani's bloodstream through the IV in her wrist.

Now we had to wait for the blood to take effect, which only took fifteen minutes, but it felt like forever.

"Sir," Jarvis said, "Her heart rate is rising." I breathed a sigh of relief, "I have also provided her with some pain medication, but with her metabolism it should burn off in about an hour. She should wake up in about fifteen minutes, but I recommend that she does not move or do anything strenuous for two to three days."

I was wrong, that fifteen minutes was even longer than the first.

Finally, her eyes fluttered open.

"Where am I?" she asked, blinking.

"Danielle, you're in the lab. Danny gave you some blood and you should recover soon. How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"Sore," she croaked with a weak smile, Ghost yipped happily and licked her fingers. She smiled at him, scratching behind his ears, it wasn't much, but I knew that she was going to be fine, "Did you get him?" she asked.

"Yep," Danny smiled, holding up the thermos. Danielle exhaled deeply, her shoulders finally releasing the tension she had been holding for weeks as she sunk into the chair.

It thirty minutes, and more pain medicine than Jarvis recommended, later, until Danielle, was finally able to move upstairs, with a little assistance of course.

What I didn't expect was to see two more kids in my living room. Danielle clearly didn't expect to see him either because her eyes widened as we lowered her onto the couch, propping her up in the cushioned corner. I recognized them both, one being Dani's friend Zeke, but the other was someone I really didn't want to have here, Scarlett, to whom Issa was giving a death glare, but surprisingly, she said nothing.

"What are you doing here?" Dani asked.

"Perhaps, we should leave them alone," Pepper 'suggested,' I say that in parenthesis because her suggestion involved shoving me, Danny, Tucker, and Sam, out of the room.

Scarlett POV-

I had seen it, I had seen everything. The whole seen was just replaying in a loop in my mind.

Working as an office aide, I had been on my way to deliver a note to some teacher, but, juts as I was about to round the corner of the wide corridor, I saw Danielle. She seemed to freeze at the same moment too. Thinking I had been spotted, I ducked behind the stone pillar. Suddenly, Danielle was across the hall, tangled in some kind of glowing net.

Then I heard a voice, one that I recognized as the voice of her father from the recording that I had seen on the news, but I saw no one. But suddenly, a glowing figure appeared out of thin air. That wasn't her father, at least, that was not the Vlad Masters I had seen on newspapers and magazines before.

He laughed darkly and taunted Danielle, to which she responded by spitting in his eye. So, she obviously knew him, and obviously had a personal problem with him, but that still did not explain who he was.

"Now, Danielle, I know I didn't raise you to act like that," he scolded in the condescending tone that I had grown so accustomed to when I was younger. Just the tone of his voice made me flinch involuntarily.

"You didn't raise me at all," Danielle growled back, venom lacing her words.

Wait, "raise"? So was he her dad after all?

Whoever he was pretended not to notice her and continued ranting, slamming everything about her and about Tony Stark who had adopted her. I saw her wince a little when he said that Tony had ignored her cry for help, but, she managed to cover it up, holding her strong façade. Then, I saw her eyes flicker past whatever his name was. I followed her gaze, noticing her friend Clarissa, with a (laser?) on her wrist.

She aimed it, and miss Mr. Bad Guy. She fired again, this time hitting him in the back. I stepped forward a little, hoping that I would be able to get close enough to help remove the net off of Danielle, but it turned out, that wasn't necessary, she burst out of her bindings, giving me time to duck behind the pillar again, and she leapt into the air. What I didn't expect was a complete makeover.

A blue light formed around her waist, spreading up and down giving her a whole new wardrobe of black and white and turning her black hair white and her blue eyes green. She also _glowed. _

Then she fired something out of her hand that kind of looked like the laser beam, hitting the bad guy dude. Then he actually flew _through _her!

Before I even knew what had happened, he had her by the throat. At which point Clarissa jumped out and pointed the laser again. The bad guy laughed, and Danielle ordered Clarissa to adjust the laser, which she finally did, hitting Mr. bad dude in the hand so that he dropped Danielle. Then he turned for Clarissa. That was bad, he looked like he wanted to kill her, and he probably would have if Danielle had not taken the blow for her. She started bleeding _green. _

The bad guy picked up Clarissa, hoisting her up so that she couldn't move no matter how hard she thrashed.

"Let her go!" Danielle exclaimed, through she was obviously still in immense pain.

The bad guy laughed, challenging her, and suddenly, they were not alone. Three teenagers, one who looked scary alike Danielle, with the white hair, and then the woman I recognized as Pepper, the woman who adopted Danielle, and _Iron Man. _

'_Wow, nothing will be surprising after today,' _I thought as Danielle and her new forces battled with the bad guy.

Finally, as the bad guy wearily stood up, he was sucked into _a soup thermos, really?_

Then Danielle collapsed at the teachers and students were sent away. I saw her change back to normal, and was quickly treated by the Goth girl who had arrived with the others. Then, Iron Man's mask went up, and I gasped, inaudibly except to me. It was Tony Stark. I would have never thought that the billionaire who had adopted Danielle could actually be such an awesome superhero, of course, I would have never pegged Danielle as one to have superpowers either. Iron man, I mean Tony, picked her up and carried her out, now that left the others, who began to walk in my direction. Before I had a chance to get away, Clarissa saw me.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I—I…um…" I stammered, unable to think of a legitimate excuse.

"How much did you see," the boy who looked like Danielle asked.

I looked down, "All of it," I said finally.

He sighed running a hand through his hair, "What should we do now?" he asked to the others.

"I have an idea, I could pound the snot out of her, and then she'll wake up tomorrow and think it was a dream," Clarissa suggested, grabbing the collar of my shirt. The boy seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head.

"I won't tell anyone, I swear!" I pleaded. He looked at me.

"It'll have to do for now, we need to get back. Dani lost a lot of blood," he sighed.

"Wait, can I come too," I asked, hesitantly.

"Why the hell do you want to come?" Clarissa demanded.

"I want to make sure she's all right. Plus, I think she deserves to know that I know about her," I said quietly. Clarissa looked to the boy and then to Pepper.

"Yeah, okay fine," the boy relented, throwing is hands up.

"One more minute," Clarissa added, releasing me, 'I have to get Zeke. He should be a part of this too." The boy sighed.

"Okay, fine, whatever. But make it fast. Dani could be in big trouble right now," Clarissa nodded before sprinting down the hallway.

Several minutes later we were in the car, with the white-haired boy flying over us "just in case," of what, I didn't know. Zeke seemed extremely confused about what was going on. I couldn't blame him, I was confused and I _saw _the whole thing.

Finally, after what seemed like forever we arrived at the Stark mansion and we all raced up to the front door and inside the house. Everybody raced in one direction, but when Zeke and I tried to follow. Pepper turned to us.

"I'm sorry, you have to stay here," she told us. I must admit I was disappointed, but Zeke seemed practically heartbroken as we went back to the couch, and waited.

After a full hour later, I heard voices and the whole group rounded the corner, except the white-haired boy now had black hair and blue eye like Danielle usually had. Danielle looked better, and needed only a little assistance into the living room.

But, she paled when she saw us. Especially me.

Dani POV-

Okay, seeing Zeke was a surprise, but seeing Scarlett? That was unfathomable. After everyone else had reluctantly left the room. I glared at Scarlett.

"What are you doing here?" I repeated, slowly and with more firmness than I had before.

"I know…" she said quietly, not meeting my eyes.

"What do you mean 'you know'?" I asked, suspicion rising.

"Um…" Scarlett hesitated, "I mean, I'm an office aide, I was running a note down the hall when I saw you, and then I saw him, and…well, I hid. But, I saw…everything," she told me, this time meeting my gaze. I saw the honesty in her eyes, something I was not used to, especially from Scarlett, and I froze. She wasn't lying, she had seen everything.

I cast a sideways glance at Zeke, who shrugged.

"I still have no idea what you guys are talking about, I was just told that you were hurt, and that I had to come here."

I sighed deeply, leaning my head on the pillow behind me, "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now…"

"I won't tell anyone, I swear! I know you have no reason to trust me after all the awful stuff I've said and done, but I mean it. And…I know how you feel, I was abused by my dad too, just not the same way you were," Scarlett told me, her voice dropping lower. This surprised me. Of course, my big secret would have been big gossip around school, but I looked at her again, she seemed to be completely sincere.

"Tell anyone WHAT!?" Zeke asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation. I sighed again, shakily getting to my feet.

"This," I said simply, closing my eyes and allowing myself to transform. I opened my eyes again. Zeke was gawking at me with his jaw down while Scarlett simply nodded, still not meeting my eyes.

"What—what, how? What are you?" Zeke stammered. I chuckled a little eat his reaction, as I changed back.

"I'm half ghost," I told them, sitting back down on the couch. Even Scarlett seemed confused by this.

"But how? Does that mean you're half dead or something?" Zeke asked.

I looked over to the hallway where I knew Danny was still invisibly snooping, silently asking if it was okay to give away the whole story. I heard a sigh and then he flew away. I guess I'll take that as a yes.

"Okay, here it goes," You'd think after all the times I've told this story, it would get easier, but it really doesn't, "My cousin Danny, became half ghost because of a portal accident in his parents lab. That made him the second half-ghost hybrid. The first being, my 'so-called father, Vlad.' When Vlad found out that Danny was also half ghost, he tried to get him to join him, so that he could have a perfect half-ghost son. Needless to say, Danny refused."

"So what does that have to do with you?" Zeke asked.

"I'm getting to that," I glared at him and he turned red, sinking back into the couch behind him, "Anyway, when Danny refused, Vlad decided that he would _clone _Danny to get a half-ghost son. But, well something must have gone wrong because obviously, I'm a girl, and like two years younger than he is."

"Wait a minute, you're a _clone_?" Zeke exclaimed in disbelief.

"The only successful one, actually. So then I escaped, but I wasn't really that stable, so, Vlad tried to capture me and melt me down to ectoplasm to find what had been stabilizing me as long as it had. Danny saved me, and stabilized me. Then I ran away. So, long story short, now I'm here," I finished.

"Wow," Zeke exclaimed his head falling back onto the cushions.

I turned to Scarlett.

"So what now?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

"I mean, what does this make us, friends? Acquaintances? Allies? What?" I wondered. Scarlett thought for a moment, like she didn't really know the answer either. Then she looked at me.

"Let's start over and be friends," she decided. I heard a muffled "_Nooooooooo" _from another room, which let me know that everybody was still eavesdropping. I rolled my eyes. And Scarlett extended her hand "Hi, I'm Scarlett."

"Hi, Scarlett, I'm Dani," I shook her hand.

That was when everybody else decided to come out.

"So, is everything, okay, now?" Pepper asked.

I scoffed, "Like you guys don't already know."

Scarlett looked around at the group. Issa was still staring daggers at her until I gave her the 'be-nice' look and she huffed, crossing her arms.

"You're lucky, you know," Scarlett said, finally, "Not, only do you get to live with people who love you. But you also get to have Iron Man as your dad." Now, it was Tony's turn to be surprised.

"Wait, what?" Zeke sprung up.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that. Yeah, Tony is Iron Man," I told him, nonchalantly.

"What? Lucky? You get to be a superhero, _and _your dad is one too?" he asked, dumbstruck.

I smiled to myself. Troubled past and internal bleeding aside, I was lucky. But it was more than that, I was blessed. And, as for my past, well, I decided, I wouldn't change a thing, after all, it was because of my past that I got to be here now, surrounded by the best family and friends a girl could ever ask for. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

Epilogue:

A full investigation was taken on Vlad's house, where his secret lab was discovered and investigated. He now has a warrant out for his arrest involving several counts of stalking and child abuse through the files found on his computer and the tools found in the lab. But, the real world arrest will have to wait because Vlad was also found guilty by the observers of kidnapping, child abuse, assault, stalking, and threatening to murder humans. Danny, Danielle, Walker, and even Tony (who was admitted into the Ghost Zone for the trial testified against him).

And, although neither prison will be able to hold him for long, he won't be bothering Danielle for a very long time.

**The End. **

**For now at least. Like I said in one of the earlier chapters, there will be a sequel, one that will even involve the Avengers. I'm not sure when I'll get around to posting it (mostly because I don't know how to start), but be on the look out for a new story from me.**

**Thank you to all the fans who followed this story to the end. I really hoped you enjoyed it.**


	36. Chapter 36

Hey everybody, the sequel is now up and is called "Sweet 16" I hope you like it. Also, I posted some fan art for "A New Home" along with some of my other stories on Deviant Art if you want to check them out, they shouldn't be too hard to find because my username is the same as on here: ilovepuppies125.


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